


Afterlife as We Know It

by Keaton_educated



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)
Genre: Alive Alex Mercer & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Eventual Happy Ending, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Growing Old Together, Growing Up Together, Multi, as a treat, but not without a lil danger, the guys are alive-ish
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:00:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 36,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29687781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keaton_educated/pseuds/Keaton_educated
Summary: After the Orpheum, Julie's hug, and the stamps floating off, the guys are alive, or rather alive-ish. Finding a way to live in the Molina household and in the world 25 years in the future has its challenges, but also its joys.Luke, Reggie, and Alex were always set to live a long happy life, but not always a normal one. Julie couldn't make music without someone to share it with, and the house needed new life in it, so new life it was given. Unfinished business is not always a checklist to scratch off, but an experience to enjoy. Sometimes the universe makes a mistake and pays back in full, with interest.Just a story about what happens after their hug, and how such a simple act can start a lifetime of happiness.
Relationships: Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 98
Kudos: 134





	1. Peices of a Broken Clock Tick Again

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work ever, any commentary is greatly appreciated. This chapter is short but others will be longer.  
> Enjoy :)

Right as they held onto one another, the shaking stopped. Luke hadn’t realized how much he was shaking until they all touched one another, and it suddenly stopped. No, it was more than that. With his heart tripling in speed, faster than a rocket, he ran his fingers through her hair. Julie’s hair. He didn’t fade through it, as he would have mere minutes ago. He didn’t fade through her. He brushed the hair off her back and he could quite literally feel her figuring it out herself. Her heart was beating outside of her chest too. He moved back just for a second and looked at his hands locked with hers. _I’m glowing._

“How can I feel you?” she looked at him with puffy eyes and he could barely hear her over his own thoughts began looping in his head. _I can hold her. I am glowing. Why am I glowing? I can hold her. I’m not getting the shocks; I should be getting them by now._

“I…I-I don’t know,” He was tearing up still. He brushed his thumb on her arm, just imagining his hand fading through it again. She put both of her hands on his face, he could feel her ring, warm on his cheek. _I haven’t felt this heat in twenty-five years._ He held her face in return and there it was again. Warm, blushing cheeks, and her hands, they felt real, he could even feel the soft parts of her fingertips that had been brushed clean by hours of playing the piano.

Then, just as his heart rate was leveling off, the feeling of being alive, in its own sort of odd way crept back in. It was…empowering, He turned back to the guys, this was the best he had felt since he had walked into that damned club “I-” He tilted his head back, loving how this felt. “I feel stronger.” He repeated with some more feeling in his chest.  
Julie caught onto this, feeling better she looked back at them, “Alex, Reggie, come,” she sputtered, barely able to make out any other words, after all, we were in a time crunch. Both of them were very cautiously making their way closer, but all Luke could do was look down at his glowing hands. They all wrapped one another up in a group hug and suddenly Alex and Reggie also started to develop that glow.

“I… I–I don’t feel as weak anymore.” Reggie stated as he got a smile back on his face for the first time since they finished at the Orpheum.

Alex took a moment, this… felt like living, almost better, he hadn’t felt the relief of this much pain off his shoulders since, well, since he died, although that was met with 25 years of crying. “Yeah, me neither. Not that I was ever that weak,” Then, a static shock went right over their pulses. The purple sigil, just…floated off.

Julie’s eyes grew wide as the marks floated off them and dissolved into the air, but the boys were just looking at their wrists and one another. “What do you think this means?” Julie asked, breaking up the delicate silence.

Luke just took a breath and laughed it off. “I think the band’s back.” A thought crept in: _What if this is the last step before we cross over?_ It panged in his chest for just a moment. Reggie held his wrist, trying to brush off where that brand used to be, making sure he didn’t ever have to feel that shock again. _What if this is the last step before we’re gone?_

“You guys think we could try that hug thing one more time?” Alex said with a little grin. It was enough to bring everyone out of their heads for a moment. The feeling only got better. 

“Yeah” they all replied at once, feeling a calm that the four hadn’t ever really felt before. “Hugs are good,” Alex adds. Then that calm becomes joy, the boys weren’t feeling anything close to fading away. They cannot hold it in and eventually, this group hug turns into a bouncing team huddle

There were so many feelings in a single 24-hour period. All that was left to feel was joy, she played on the same stage her mom looked at for years when she was working at the Orpheum. She had her dahlia. She had her boys back. There was every reason to celebrate. “We played the Orpheum!”

. . .

She stayed out there all night. The guys didn’t really sleep but they did take time to take it easy. The glowing eventually faded after several hours, but the guys still said they felt as strong as ever, they checked to make sure they could still hold things, and touch other living people, usually by all giving Julie a group hug. She didn’t mind, she actually loved it. She expected her dad to come in and check on her, but he never came. Most of the night they lounged around the studio, occasionally they would all get this rush of excitement again that they were still around, or Julie would check her Instagram and Twitter for more comments on their performance. Every new like and comment was noted and replied to. 

She had plenty of boundaries up between these guys, but after that moment, she, and the boys alike felt like there was an understanding between them, even if they now had plenty of questions. After the high wore off, there were some creeping thoughts that just couldn't be ignored “So, do you think you guys are… human now?”

They all look between each other. “I guess, sort of?” Reggie offers as he wrestles himself out of the necktie.

“I kind of forgot what it feels like to be human, but this feels pretty close,” Alex says. The other two nod, it was as close to words as the feeling could get. “Do you think we can still go poof?”

“I guess we could try.” Luke offers, he up and closes his eyes and focuses, it doesn’t quite feel quite the same, but after a minute he and Alex and Reggie are out on the front lawn. “It’s a little harder than before. But I guess it counts for something.”

Reggie gives a semi-confident nod. “Only I was aiming for the gas station, must take more effort to go farther,” He looks down. “But at least my shirt moves with the rest on me now,” he says with a breathless laugh.

“Well, I guess we can walk back to the studio,” Alex takes one step and sets off the garage floodlights. “We couldn’t do that before could we?” They had wandered around the house plenty of times and never set that off. Ray and Carlos, who were watching a movie in the living room, turn their heads to notice three boys standing in their driveway at 2 am.

Ray takes his phone and keys and looks out on the porch. “Who’s there?” he calls out, more confused than concerned.

Julie heard this commotion and decided to head upfront, and once she was out of the front gate she walked upon the scene. Her dad, staring at the boys. Actively looking at them. Talking to them, really at them. They froze up like deer in the headlights. People can see them now. That’s new.


	2. I Hear Pasdena's Nice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I am getting used to the HTML formatting, so chapter 1 has been a little edited. Also, my apologies to anyone that read this story for the explicit rating, um that's not going to happen in this story, or at least I am not planning on it atm.

“Julie, come on get inside, these guys are just lost,” Her dad asks, growing frustrated with these guys. “There is a police station a few blocks down. They can get you guys help if your car broke down.”

“Um, Dad, these guys, aren’t lost.”

“Yeah, no we aren’t lost,” Reggie adds, a little too excited that her dad could finally see him and they could have the talks he wanted.

“Well, if you aren’t lost… Julie, wait, Jules... are these the guys from your band?” he says, not nearly believing it, but it made sense, they were still in those suits. However, it also made no sense whatsoever. “I thought you said they were in Sweden?”

“They were…” something needed to come up fast, she couldn’t exactly tell him what happened she barely has a hold on her own understanding.

“We were,” Luke pipes up “We decided after the Orpheum, to try and start being a real band, at least for a little while, so as soon as we were done with that show we just, packed up and got on the first flight over here.” He looks around. “That also meant our luggage got on a later flight.” He chuckles and rubs the back of his neck.

Ray took a minute, after all this was, unconventional. “Why don’t you guys come inside, we’ve got room outside in the studio for you, and, I’ve probably got something for you guys to change into. We can get a hold of your parents in a minute, they know you guys left right? I’m not harboring you guys while your parents are worried sick,”

 _You have actually been doing that for a few months now but you don’t need to know that_ Luke and Julie both thought silently, they looked at each other hoping someone would come up with something quick. 

After the door shuts, Alex had decided it’s his turn to add something to the story. “Actually, that isn’t really the best choice, we don’t talk to our parents anymore, not officially.” 

Julie, standing behind her father and brother gives him a terrifying death glare. “You see, we are actually… very recently… emancipated from our parents, we all have some pretty bad situations at home.” He looks between Luke and Reggie. _Well at least we aren’t lying straight through our teeth._ Luke thought. He and Reggie lower their heads in a sort of nod. “It's kind of a long story.” Ray nods, putting his hand on his chin trying to think of what to do next.

“Well, if that’s the case, we can work something out later. I’ll go get you guys something to sleep in, Julie, go get those air mattresses out of the garage, we’ll put you boys up in the studio, it's heated and all that good stuff. Show them the way Jules.” He says heading upstairs after some clothes.

“Well, alright then come on guys,” she says in a canned tone, still taking her time to take in what’s happening. _And to think I thought hiding them when they were invisible was hard._

Carlos, who was still sitting on the couch watching this unfold and a little in shock that the guys that were in mom’s trunk were in his living room. He stands up and follows them, curious about these new guests and their relationship with this big sister. “So if you guys are Swedish, why don’t you have an accent?” He asks looking up at Reggie.

“Um, well, Carlos…” Julie offers “They live on the naval base there, they are actually from…”

“Pasadena,” Reggie adds, offhandedly.

“New Mexico, Albuquerque,” Alex joins in.

“Uh... Cleveland, Ohio,” Luke finishes up, and when Carlos wasn’t looking Alex, Reggie, and Julie give him an odd look.

“It’s got the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!” he whispers in a snappy tone.

“Yeah, they met in Sweden, and then I met them later and we decided to make a band together.” Julie wraps up, passing out sleeping bags and air mattresses. Carlos was definitely going to test this little fib, mostly making sure that these weren’t ghost ax murderers. He was also going to prove to his dad that these guys aren't what they seem, and they certainly aren’t Swedish. 

It's just a miracle that Victoria went home for the night, she would tear this little improv scene to shreds. They set up everything in the studio, and Ray comes back with plenty of sweatpants and old painting shirts. “These should be more comfortable than those suits, I brought hangers so you can hang them up.” He offers. “Are you guys hungry? We have food in the fridge, or maybe we can drive and get hamburgers?”

“No, we are all good Mr. Molina, thank you though. We got food on the way,” Usually Luke would have to be sick to turn down a meal, and he really wanted to try the leftover pasta in the fridge, he had been eyeing it for some time now. But he could tell Julie’s dad was tired, and probably plenty worried that these guys showed up on his front lawn, after flying halfway around the world just to see his daughter with absolutely no formal invitation. So he could ignore the fact his stomach now growled after 25 years.

“Actually, can we get just a bag of chips, like those fancy ones that taste like deep-fried pickles?” Reggie interjects.

“Oh yeah those are the best, I think we have a bag of them in the pantry.” Carlos runs off after them, and his dad chuckles and follows.

Julie looks around at the beds and sheets. “So, what do we do if he doesn’t want you guys living here forever? It’s not like you guys have anywhere to really go,” she says crossing her arms over her chest. “I mean, even if he does he’s going to get suspicious, and if you guys have to go to school-“

“Julie, it’s going to work itself out, we will just need time to figure it out. Maybe we just find a way to pay rent or something.” Luke offers offhandedly. “We will take this one day at a time.” He rests his hands on her shoulders and they both manage to smile. He could get used to this.

“You’ll take it one day at a time until my aunt comes and demands to know why three boys are living in her sister’s studio. She’s gonna tear our story to shreds, do you guys know what your blood type is?”

“I’m still not sure we have blood,” Alex adds.

“Oh no we do, I gave myself a splinter when I touched the hibiscus outside,” Reggie adds as he holds up his thumb.

Both Alex and Julie made a face that was about to ask why and how, but scrapped the idea.

“Regardless, there isn’t anything we can fix tonight, so we have nothing else to worry about tonight,” Luke says as he hears the door open and immediately takes his hands off of Julie. Carlos hands Reggie the bag, and an extra one “We also had hot Cheetos in case you wanted them.”

“Oh yeah I haven’t had these in years!” and Luke and Alex can’t help but laugh, Reggie loved those things, even in the ’90s. Alex and especially Bobby thought they tasted like battery acid, but Luke would occasionally join in a bag of them. Tonight, they sounded amazing on an empty stomach.

“See you tomorrow for an early practice?” Luke offers.

“I still have school tomorrow, how about seeing you at breakfast,” That felt pretty nice to say, actually having a meal with these guys instead of panicking she would blow the whole secret.

. . .

The next morning, the boys had come in just as Ray was making his morning coffee, and he gave them free rein over the kitchen and offered morning eggs. “So I was thinking, I have a meeting that gets out at noon, and the kids have to get to school, wait, don’t you guys have school in Sweden?” he asks, putting his cup down.

“Uh, we were early graduates, uh over there you can knock out all your stuff really quick,” Luke adds. “The certificates came in the other day so there really wasn’t anything keeping us there” he nods hoping this wouldn’t open up another box of questions, he had stayed up thinking of a little bit more to this story. “The emancipation papers should be fully finalized today.” He sputters out.

“Wait, so legally you guys are still supposed to be on that base! Do you know the kind of trouble I could get in if your- “

“Our parents aren’t looking for us, trust us we know that much,” Alex says looking down from his seat on the counter, taking in the sting. “We haven’t lived with them for a… really long time.”

“Yeah,” Reggie states. “We’re as good as gone in their eyes.” It left a bad taste in his mouth, especially since he could actually be seen by them, but having your dead kid show up at your door might just be the thing to put someone in a coma. Best not to play with that variable just yet. 

“Well, I’m sorry to hear that guys.” He looks down at his mug and then over at the family photo from just before Rose left, he took it down right after it happened but decided it should stay there, he liked to think Rose would have liked looking at the house from there. “but as for this,” he looks around his house, “what kind of plan do you have? I’m happy to keep you here while you land on your feet, and you and Jules have a good thing going but, you guys are going to need some money to get by.” He says as he starts making eggs for everyone. “Anyway, I was thinking after my meeting we can go to the airport and get your luggage, then maybe have a discussion about some ground rules for staying here, then we can at least go and try to get you guys some part-time work around here.”

“That sounds great, yes, thank you so much, Mr. Molina,” Luke says with a smile. _Now, how do we get our stuff from the airport if it’s in the studio right now?_  
“Yes, thank you so much,”

“So very much,”

Carlos comes down the stairs in a flash and Julie follows in her iconic monster slippers. It is not easy to stay asleep once Carlos has decided to take on the world. They all fill up plates and sit down for breakfast, with two extra chairs. Julie couldn’t really help but laugh at this, she certainly did not expect to be having breakfast with her dad and the boys. She hadn’t expected a lot of things to happen last night to go on, but they did. Life itself was changing, and she had no idea of how to explain half of it to Flynn. I mean she would figure it out when she comes over after school and can see the boys. 

Carlos was taking notes on his new ghost housemates. _They could now be seen, they could eat, or were they just pretending to eat?_ He tries to get a good look at Alex’s seat as he gets up to put his plate in the dishwasher, there wasn’t any food left behind. _So they can digest food, or at least hang onto it until no one is around._ Luke on his way up tripped on Julie’s chair _So they can’t float through stuff. So what kind of ghosts are they? They can’t even do the cool stuff!_

It was nice for the boys to actually have breakfast around someone. Luke hadn’t had it in over 27 years, Alex hadn’t actually eaten any breakfast that didn’t come out of a plastic wrapper in 26 years, after he came out to his parents he really just ducked out when they were having coffee and came back when they tucked in for the night. Reggie actually managed to at least have some breakfasts right up until the end, but it typically ended with a lecture on how hanging out with Luke, Bobby and Alex would ruin his grades and his chance at a good college. Technically they were right. 

After running in circles around the house Ray corralled Julie and Carlos into the car for school, the boys were left with some gaps to fill in. “Okay, so how are we going to get our _Swedish_ clothes from the airport?”

“Yeah I mean you don’t own sleeves so like how’s that going to go?” Alex observes. “Okay, okay, we just need to get our clothes to the airport and then get back here before he gets home, it's easy,”

“Yeah, easy when you can poof beyond the front yard!” Luke adds. “Okay, so maybe we just take our stuff, put it into bags, and just keep trying to poof until we get there and back.”

“Or… I have an idea” Reggie suggests

. . . 

“Hey, guys the meeting got pushed back to tomorrow so we...can go get your stuff” he looks out at the guys who were now clad in knit hats, puffer jackets, and carrying boots and suitcases. 

“We called a taxi, we didn’t want to inconvenience you.” Alex says through his scarf. 

“Oh, guys really it was no worry, if you called an Uber I could have covered the costs.”

They look between each other for a minute, since when did they call taxis _ubers?_ They shook it off. “No really Mr. Molina it’s no problem. You’ve been so nice to us,” Reggie pokes out of this hood. 

They all unzip their coats carefully to hide the fact they got them and the suitcases out of the surrounding dumpsters in the neighborhood. “So, you guys are already one step ahead of me, so let's get into the ground rules. First off, you guys are welcome to anything in the kitchen, just keep it clean once you’re done. Um, the studio is your guy’s domain, just be careful, we’ve got a lot of my wife’s stuff... I’m sure Julie told you. And um lastly, no one’s allowed in a room alone with Julie behind closed doors. I know, I know, it’s a lame dad rule, but just save me a few grey hairs and the lecture from Victoria and promise me?”He says, taking off his driving glasses. 

“Of course”

“Yes sir”

“Absolutely”

“And I guess the last one is, so long as you guys are working or in school, rent can be… $20 a month, trust me you won’t get a better opportunity in all Los Angeles.”He says holding out his hand. “Shake on it?”

 _You couldn’t even beat that rent agreement 25 years ago._ Luke thought as he shook Ray’s hand and the other two followed suit. He stands up and takes the suitcase, up in his arm. “ We will just get our stuff put away and then we will be out hitting the pavement looking for somewhere to work sir.” 

“I haven’t heard anyone say that since the ’90s, I like your style…” He falls off when it comes to his name.

“Luke, Patterson sir.”

“Reggie Peters.”

“Alex Mercer.” 

“Well, it's nice to meet you guys, If you guys really want to you can call me Ray, but I'll take Mr. Molina, I’m not one of those dads that’s gonna make you call me one or the other.”  
They all nod, and give him a couple more ‘Thank you’s as they head out toward the studio with all their belongings in tow. Ray opened up the door for them on the way out. “Hey, guys.” He starts. “Maybe later today we can start looking around for dressers online, I’m sure we can find some the neighbors are putting out on the curb. You guys don’t need to be living out of suitcases here.” He takes a look at the garbage bag strings hanging out of Luke’s raggedy backpack “Or garbage bags either.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> to everyone leaving kudos, bookmarking, and commenting I hope all your baked goods turn out perfectly and your bed is always a little bit cold. More to come! :)


	3. The Elephant in the Studio

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cannot even begin to say how much I appreciate the support. However, I have planned to very gently place a knife in your hearts with this chapter so that's going to be fun.

After unpacking everything they just packed in the studio, they made good on their promise, and they all set out job hunting. The next few days they managed to secure a few offers. Reggie found a job as an “Activities consultant” in an elderly care center up in the hills. “They asked me to try out on the job and I just played a few rounds of checkers and bingo, and I won a round of bingo so they said I can start Tuesday. I just need to also read this book for the book club meeting on Friday” He holds up a copy of a black book with a grey tie laying across it. “It's just probably one of those boring old sewing books or something, I mean they literally called it Fifty Shades of Grey, I can’t even think of a more boring title.” 

Julie and Flynn share a look. “Oh yeah, it's super boring, I’d actually start now so you can just get it out of the way.” Flynn flippantly replies. She turns over to Julie and whispers “Please just go along, I just need to be here when he finds out.” she says, trying not to laugh and give it away. 

Alex got a job at the city’s greenhouse, so he would be taking care of plants around the city. “Yeah, it seemed like a cool enough job, they even said I can drive the watering truck.” 

“I am between two jobs, I could be working at this bar downtown at late-night cleanup, or I could work in the library, they said I would mostly be stocking shelves and maybe helping out with the kids’ programs, apparently they are hatching ducks in a few weeks.”

“Luke Patterson? A librarian?” Julie says with a little laugh. “I guess I just thought you would go straight for the bar job, especially if they have a stage.” 

“No Luke was actually a real nerd in high school, he got the award for English every year, and he got to miss a week of class because he already read  _ The Great Gatsby  _ and  _ The Catcher in the Rye  _ and finished all the stuff for it in advance.” Reggie adds from the loft as he starts reading his book “Hey I don’t think this is about sewing,” He comments flipping a page. 

“We had a show that week, I wanted time to practice.” Luke reminded, throwing up a balled shirt at Reggie.

Julie and Flynn both grin at what was unfolding. Luke ran upstairs and started antagonizing Reggie for spilling his deep dark secret. Alex leans over as they start slapping each other like toddlers. “He also was a major teacher’s pet, but you didn’t hear it from me.”

“So, how is this whole job thing going to go if you don’t have a bank account, or a social security card because I think you guys can’t really use your old ones,” Julie asks. 

“Oh! That’s actually the coolest part!” Reggie adds and Luke currently had his head pinned on the loft railing. Pull out your phone and I learned this cool trick!” He says as he manages to weasel out of Luke’s hold and rush down the stairs. “They made me fill out everything on the computer, and I panicked so I just tried this.” He held two fingers to his temple “ _ These aren’t the droids you are looking for ''  _ He mutters in a comically low voice and points at Julie’s open notes and then the keyboard starts typing out Reggie’s personal information. “The computer took it, even though that is not my actual number.”

“So you committed identity fraud,” Flynn says looking at the phone type away. 

“Is it really identity fraud if it's ghost magic?”He offers with a shrug 

Alex, Luke, Julie, and Flynn all look between one another trying to decide if he had merit in saying this. They then decided to drop the subject as Reggie made a fake birth certificate appear as well. Flynn was planning out this week’s Julie&ThePhantoms social media posts, especially with all the footage leftover from the Orpheum. Alex decided to start moving his stuff to the unoccupied loft, careful of Julie’s mom’s stuff, and decorating the landing at the top of the stairs with that. 

Luke pulled out his lyric book, and Julie followed suit by grabbing her dreambox from under her seat. “Well that’s all good, so which is it, Luke? Stocking bookshelves or cleaning out bar bathrooms?” Julie asks as they both sit down at the piano stool to work out a new bridge for his new song. 

“Well if I plan to work at the bar, we can’t really play there, sounds a little risky you know, poofing in and out. They also want me to work late hours so it might interfere with band rehearsals. But they even suggested I get paid under the table and it's only a few days a week. Plus I might get to find a few gigs for us elsewhere.” He starts playing a few chords and humming out syllables to see what fits. “But if I go work at the library, I’ll be able to work when you are at school and when all the guys are working.”

“Sounds like you are a lot more excited for the first one, and you are talking yourself out of it,” she says as she matches his chords with something lighter. “ Just go for it, and if you don’t love it you can try something somewhere else. It's not like my dad is going to kick you out the moment you end up between jobs. You only need $20 to stay here, I’m surprised you weren’t playing on the pier for the money”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right, thanks," He grins as he tries another set and she matches on the higher keys. “I thought about it, a couple of times, actually, but I promised your dad that I would get a stable job to stay here and I really don’t want to push that, I’ve had enough arguments with parents to last a lifetime, and he supports the music, I can’t ask for much more. So I’m not going to.” He is about to try again and just before his hands hit the keys he freezes. 

Julie matches his fingers and writes down the notes. “That one fits. Luke... has all of this… being seen again, makes you think about your parents again?” She implores, moving her hand closer just to remind him he’s being heard. 

He takes a big breath in through the nose and fidgets in the chair, pulling his hand away for just a moment, then putting it back over her hand. Locking their fingers he says, “ Yeah, a lot actually it’s kind of running through my head nonstop,” He looks in her eyes for just a moment then his legs start bouncing in place “but let’s not really talk about it right now.” He puts on a little smile. “We have a lot of ground to cover on this song today.”

“Um guys, this book isn’t about sewing at all!” Reggie calls with horror in his eyes. “They let the old ladies read this for fun!?”

Flynn starts laughing so hard she nearly falls over and looks over to Julie “Thank you, thank you for this.” She says as she tries to catch her breath. 

. . .

After rehearsal, dinner, and even watching a movie altogether in the living room, the guys headed into the studio. They really hadn’t had any time with just them, and there was a lot to talk about. 

“So, are we gonna talk about it?” Luke asks as he flops back on the new mattress Ray found at a neighbor’s garage sale. Either loft was taken by Alex or Reggie, and Luke had been making out a little cove for himself on the main floor. Mr. Molina offered to make him some curtains, they all were going to go look at garage sales to get some living furniture for them once they all had a paycheck but Ray offered to at least buy them bed frames and somewhere to put their clothes. 

“Talk about what, you were falling asleep on Julie through the whole movie,” Alex calls leaning over the railing. 

“About what we do about our parents now that people can see us!” Luke reminded with his hands in the air. “I mean, come on, don’t you think we should at least tell them we are alive again!” 

“I mean, we still aren’t  _ alive _ per se,” Reggie adds as he poofs onto the couch on the ground floor. “I’d said we are alive _ ish _ .” He poofs back to where he was, “I mean, you even said it yourself on that beach, we never really had a good relationship with them in the first place, and Ray thinks we are enunciated-”

“Emancipated.” Alex interrupts with a roll of his eyes. 

“Yeah whatever that means, emancipated, If he knew we were lying, or our parents found out that we knew we were alive and didn’t come home, there goes any place for us to live a semi-normal life, and-”

“And there goes Julie being a part of the band. Her dad wouldn’t want her anywhere near three guys that lied just to be around her more.” Luke adds falling back on the bed with a thud. 

“Yeah, that too.” Reggie finishes. 

“So this is it, we completely swear off our parents. There isn’t really any way around it.” Alex states, crossing his arms on the wooden panel “Not like we didn’t do it before.”

They all have a stale laugh thinking about that night they found out there was an opening to play at the Orpheum, and they applied for the spot. They all swore to live like rock and roll lost boys, no parents telling them they were wasting their bright futures, and no looking back until they made it big and could tell their parents ‘I told you so’. This wasn’t like that night at all. This was a lot more permanent. Luke used to feel terrible hanging out around the house, watching his parents think about what happened every day. Now, never actually seeing them again, knowing they were living like that? So much worse. 

Alex felt a dull pain in his head. He knew he couldn’t ever go back unless coming back from the dead washed the gay off their kid. It didn’t. Even if he did tell them he was alive, or aliveish, it would just be square one again. Sneaking around them, acting like that night never happened, and hiding a big part of his life. Maybe things would be different with his sister, but I mean she was the one that nearly outed him a half dozen times until he just eventually ripped the bandaid off himself. After that night the whole house changed. No way was he going back to just pretending this big part of his life wasn't there. Especially if there was a chance between him and Willie now, wherever he was.

Reggie didn’t even know what to feel. He didn’t know where on Earth either of his parents were, let alone if they were still together. They sold the house and disappeared, and given the state they were in right before he left and then died, it wouldn’t be insane to think they were not together anymore. But at least now he didn’t need to find out. 

“Yeah, I don’t really see any other way to do this,” Reggie adds as he stands up to go to bed. 

“There isn’t.” Luke stares up at the ceiling, just double-checking every possible scenario if there was even a chance they could work it out. "It's either we see our parents or stay with Julie, if we went to see them it would just open a box we can't close."

There was a long silence between everyone, as they all settled in for the night. “Being alive-ish is definitely weirder than being a ghost.” Alex sighs as he turns out his light. He couldn’t stop thinking about Willie, if he could see him again, or if that went away too. If Willie was still even around, Caleb knew that he told them how to cross over. Before he let it get any worse, he put the suitcase over his chest and took several deep breaths watching it rise and fall. Back in the ‘90s, he would do that with whatever he could find, it brought him out of his head. 

“Everything ok over there?” Reggie asks looking over from the other loft. 

“Yeah, yeah it's all good,” Alex says with the same tone as if he is walking off a hernia. Reggie and Luke both poof over to the foot of his bed. 

“Come on man, it sucks, you can say that.” Reggie lays down on the twin air mattress with him. “It sucks a whole fucking lot.”

Luke gives him a look “Since when do you cuss?” Looking back he hadn’t ever really remembered hearing Reggie swear, even when he fixed that amp in the rain. Or when he got his hand glued to his leg with Gorilla glue and gave himself an impromptu wax job. 

“Since today I guess,”

Alex laughs through his nose and looks between his friends. “It does suck, a whole fucking lot.” He shoves the suitcase off and Luke joins in on the mattress, nearly taking Reggie out. 

“Well, for what it's worth, I still have you guys,” Luke adds. “I could get over a lot, but not that.”

Alex and Reggie both lean over to look at Luke. They look between one another and nod “Yeah, I mean I wouldn’t know what to do if you guys weren’t with me,” Alex starts“but that’s too cheesy dude.” Alex says rolling his eyes “Now get out of my bed. Some of us have to work in the morning.”

“Yeah… super cheesy,” Reggie says with a stifled breath, trying not to cry. With another poof out they are back in their beds. “Goodnight guys,”

“Night,” Alex mutters as he rolls over. 

“Night Reggie, Night Alex,” Luke turns out his light and flops down face first on his bed. 

After a little bit of silence, those feelings still came back as they all let their imagination wander. Luke stayed up writing until he passed out, a pencil in hand, common practice when he felt like his heart was made of lead. 


	4. When the Other Shoe Drops

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter tugged a little bit at my heartstrings, and I hope it does to yours too. All the Kudos, comments, and hits mean so much to me thank you all. :)

After another week, the Molina household nearly had the “new normal” in place. That is until it came time to invite Aunt Victoria over for dinner and explain to them what was going on. Ray had offered every usable excuse and was grateful they worked and she didn’t come right over anyway. He had prepared dinner, an actual dinner, enchiladas. He was going to do a barbeque but for some reason, the guys just really weren’t down for hot dogs. He had tried to think of everything she would say and try to diffuse the situation, but he knew his sister-in-law well enough to know she would find something he wasn’t seeing. 

Julie was also not looking forward to this, so she brought her A-game. An ‘A’ on her calculus test, with the extra credit, her room was clean and she even wore the yellow dress her aunt brought from her work trip in Phoenix, yellow with little embroidered flowers on the skirt’s hem. She went through her whole closet trying to find something that went with it, and eventually, just put on a white cardigan over it. She looked like she was about to go to church, but it was going to put her aunt in a good mood.

The boys were trying to keep everyone calm, after all, they were kind of the reason this whole thing happened. After work, they started cleaning the whole house, the studio, the living room, the kitchen, even the front lawn. Alex even took a cutting off of one flower from work that was going to get mulched as a peace offering. They knew that Ray wouldn’t just put them out on the street that night if she didn’t approve, but it didn’t take a mind reader to tell there was a good reason Ray and Julie were on edge. 

They decided to start dinner early, and they broke the tension quickly, everyone looked forward to this time at dinner for one reason or another. Then they saw her car come in through the driveway, and they all kind of shared a look. “It's gonna be fine you guys, she’s gonna come around to it.” Ray assures them as he takes a bite. The door swings open and everyone turns their heads to look at Victoria, who has come dressed for her Thursday pilates class after dinner. 

“Well, would you look at this Julie has some of her friends over!” She says with a smile setting her bag on the counter. “Well I am her _tia_ , but you have probably heard all about me.” She says helping herself to a plate and taking a seat at the head of the table across from Ray. “It must be a big event if someone actually got Ray to cook a meal.” Then she takes a bite and looks all the members of the table up and down. “Wait a minute, you guys must be Julie’s bandmates!” she says covering her mouth with her hand. “Julie!” she says turning her head to her niece sitting right next to her. “Why didn’t you tell me they were coming over from Sweden! Ray! We could have done all the fun touristy stuff while they are here! Oh, you guys look like you would like that hike up to the Hollywood sign, it’s a classic thing to do around here.” 

“Well Vic, that’s what we wanted to talk to you about.” Ray begins putting his napkin on the table and taking a drink of water. All the kids at the table but Carlos were hiding their anxiety, but he was trying to hide the small bit of excitement he had for what was about to come. “They came over a… almost two weeks ago, right guys?”

“Yeah it should be two weeks on Thursday,” Luke adds, putting down his fork. 

“-And they had some… revelations happening at home, so they decided to try and come over here, and I told them they could stay in the studio.”

Victoria looks up and then tries to make sure she heard him correctly. She sets her plate aside and gives him a look as if he said he said Carlos started growing a 3rd arm at baseball practice today and hit a home run with it. 

“Hey, you guys, are all done eating, why don’t you _all_ ,” He looks down at Carlos, “Go hang out in the studio.”

They all nod and take their dishes to the sink, on his way out Alex hands Victoria the flower he had wrapped up in wax paper, before heading out after the rest of the group. With the two adults at the table, Victoria starts to break the silence. “So you just decided to let three teenage boys from the internet live with you and your teenage daughter?” She spat

“Come on Vic, it’s not like that Julie knows them and-,”

“And she is not even sixteen, it's one thing playing in a little hologram band, or even just being in a band together, but living in your backyard?” She looks him in the eyes. “You have to understand why I am concerned!”

“I get it, I was a little nervous and apprehensive too, but Victoria, these are the guys that got Julie to sing again, the guys that got her actually enjoying being on stage and acting not just like her old self but actually moving forward and becoming herself.” He takes his plate to the sink. “I owe them so much for that. They brought her back and you saw it on stage, she loves being with them. Even Carlos is warming up to them.” He leans back on the counter as she walks around the island. “These guys will do anything to prove that they will stay here, I asked them to go get jobs and they got interviews set up before dinner, I mean who does that these days?”

“Okay, I do get it, but I mean come on Raymond, you just got the swing of things with your own children, now you take in three more? How long do you reasonably think this is going to last?” She couldn’t look at the picture of her sister, but she could feel her eyes burning. Rose would have taken them in an instant, but Ray sincerely struggled for the better half of that year, with himself and with his kids. 

“As long as they need me, I mean these… those boys won’t even mention their parents, they got legally emancipated, their parents aren’t looking for them at all. I mean I have asked and their faces just fall, their luggage looks like something you’d find in a dumpster, and their clothes were in garbage bags. So I’m not sure what happened, but this isn’t some kids just playing lost boys. They sincerely have nowhere else to go.” He looks over at his sister-in-law. “And I’ll be honest, I’m kinda liking the chaos, the mornings seem lively again, I mean the car is practically a bus, first I drop off Alex to the municipal building, then Julie to school then Carlos, and then Reggie and I have a little jam session on the way to Lively Oaks, Luke usually gets a bus ride into town for work around 7, he said he’s gonna be putting away his paychecks for a car, so we all have dinner-”

“Okay, okay I get it,” She says as she listens to him drone on. “I guess you are a grown man, and you can deal with it, I just don’t want this to go down in flames.”

“It’s gonna be okay, we are taking all of this one day at a time.” He says with a smile as he shuts the dishwasher and turns it on. “And for the first time in a while, there is life in this house, besides what’s under Carlos’s bed.”

“Yeah,” she says staring off with a look of horror on her face. “You’re going to have to call someone for that.”

"So you are promising me that you have this under control. I am always going to be here for you and the kids, but I am not taking on the responsibility of 3 more teenagers.”

“I promise Vic, They are really more like house cats than teenage boys. Although Reggie has the energy of a puppy dog, he is usually fine after we take a walk around the block together.” He chuckles. 

Victoria rolls her eyes at the thought. “You know that one with the beanie likes Julie, what are you going to do when you have them living in the same house? Certainly not install cameras in every room.”

“Luke and Julie...are going to come forward, if they need to, whenever they are ready. We all live in the same house, privacy isn’t something I am worried about. I trust them to be open with me about what they feel, and when they do… I’ll just have a stroke and pass away, then it’s your problem.” He offers with a cheesy grin. 

Victoria crosses her arms and gives him a dry laugh. “You think you are being funny,” she purses her lips. “Alright, I guess I will let you be on that one. She knows she can talk to me about anything. It's just a rule of having a _tia_ as cool as I am.”

Now it was Ray’s turn to laugh “I’m sure, I’m sure. So what do you say? Are you still convinced this is as crazy as you thought?”

“I still do think you are crazy, you have just made it clear that I am not crazy enough to talk you out of it.”

“That’s good enough for me, So what do you say we clean this up?”

“Um, if memory serves me, you are the caretaker for 5 able-bodied children, I am never doing dishes in this house again.” She says sitting back down and finishing off her enchilada “And neither are you for that matter.”

“And that is why you are my favorite sister-in-law.” He says raising his glass for cheers.

. . . 

In the studio, Carlos made it his personal responsibility to check out exactly what the guys did to redecorate the studio. He flops down on the old couch with a smug grin. Reggie and Alex both take seats as well, while Julie was pacing, and Luke was trying to talk her down until he essentially was just pacing behind her. 

“What’s with the smug look dude?” Alex asks as he looks over at Carlos on his iPad. “Are you winning?”

Carlos sets down his iPad and gives both of them a smirk “I know your big secret.”

This had Julie stopping in her tracks. “What secret?” Luke asks blatantly. “Come on Carlos, we aren’t keeping any secrets,”

“Yeah, you are,” He objects, cracking open the protective case on his iPad and holding up a picture of the guys, with Bobby. “This was dated in June, of _1995_ ,” he stresses. “You guys should be about my mom’s age, but you aren’t, so that means you guys are the ghosts I’ve been looking around the house for.” He stands up to show the picture around. 

“Carlos, come on, that’s just a misprint, I mean Alex wore that sweatshirt yesterday.” Luke kneels down to his level. 

“And if we are ghosts, how come you can see us?” Alex adds crossing his arms over his chest. 

“I thought you guys would say something like that, so I raise you a question.” He puts the photo in Julie’s hand, standing in front of her. “Why is the other guy in the picture a young Trevor Wilson?” He goes over to his iPad and pulls up a picture of a young Bobby playing on stage “This is him in 1996.” 

They all try to think of a proper lie to cover this up, and right as Luke is about to open his mouth Julie stops him. “No guys, he’s right.” She turns her little brother around to face her. “Yes, you are right Carlos.” She gives him a look as his smirk grows “But, now that you know, you have to be sworn to secrecy. Dad can not know that I’m in a ghost band, he will lose his mind. So what’s your price for keeping this,” She holds up the album art, “just between us.”

“I want you guys to show me how you go invisible!” He says turning back around. 

“Um, that’s actually a new revelation dude, we haven’t been able to do that since the Orpheum.” Reggie states. “But! But… we can do _this!”_ With a quick turn around he poofs onto one of the hanging chairs on the ceiling and back down. 

Carlos’s eyes light up with joy at what he just saw. “That’s so cool! Can you do it to me?” 

He walks over and tries to do it while holding him two feet off the ground and makes a constipated face, but poofs onto his bed without Carlos. “No, no we cannot.”

“So why are you guys haunting us?”

“We don’t really know, One day we are about to play the Orpheum in 1995, eating bad street dogs, then we go to this room where Alex cried for 25 years, then we poof out of a CD player because Julie played our music.”

“Do you really have to mention the fact that I cried for 25 years _every time_ we tell the story?” Alex chides. “I think they can get the idea without it.”

“Anyway, we don’t know why I was the only one that could see them, or why us playing together made them visible. We thought having them play the Orpheum would have them cross over to the afterlife, but apparently, there’s something else.”

“Yeah, but I mean we have our lives back, so we aren’t really complaining,” Luke adds. “So, we can trust you, little man?”

“Yeah, I guess you can.”

“Good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The boys and Carlos's dynamic just feels so perfect for me, so there will naturally be a bit more of that! For those of you waiting on Willex, that comes next!


	5. The Sign of the Times

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, it's Willex time! it is a little short but don't worry, there will be more!

Alex had enjoyed working in the parks. The garden areas were easy to take care of, and his coworkers seemed nice enough. As he was just outside of the skate park, weeding out the beds near a palm tree, and a certain long-haired skateboarder hops out of the bowl to notice him taking some weeds back to the truck

“Hey! Hey Hotdog!” He calls as he hops on his board to catch up to Alex. “Hey Alex,” he says as he comes to a stop. “What… What are you here for? I thought you crossed over?”

Taken by surprise, Alex jumps back. “Yeah, we thought we were going to be too, but look at this.”He rolls back his khaki work shirt to show that the mark was gone “And it's the weirdest thing, ever since we played the Orpheum, people can see me.” He lifts up his pant leg to show where a bruise from Carlos’s baseball hit “I get cuts and bruises like a per- like a lifer, but I can still poof around, and look at this.” He moves a little closer and makes a social security card fly out of thin air. “Reggie found that one out. We don’t really know what’s going on but we are rolling with it.” He notices the look on Willie’s face. “Caleb can’t know about this, he thinks we are gone.”

“I’ve actually been trying to find you for a while, we have no idea where Caleb went. He isn’t running the club and no one knows where to find him. For a while I was fine with it, I didn’t really want to find him, but now… it just doesn’t sit right. He hasn’t been to a single performance. Caleb doesn’t just miss performances.”

“Well, that’s good, I guess. Maybe whatever we did stopped him for good.” Alex says rolling from ball to heel on his feet. 

“Yeah, maybe,” Willie repeats. He shakes off the thought. “So you work around here? Should I expect to see you here often Hotdog?” 

Alex gives a little laugh at the nickname, at least now he knew Willie wasn’t avoiding him. “I work in the parks around town, I really don’t know where I’m going each day, but we should be here for the rest of the week.”

“I guess I’ll just have to hang out in more parks then.” They both hear someone calling for Alex “I’ll see you later. It's nice knowing you aren’t fully a lifer, I’d miss having you see me.”

“Yeah, yeah no it's really good we can keep that,” Alex says as he watches Willie ride off. 

“Who were you talking to Alex?” His coworker Tim asks as he hands him some more gardening tools to carry. 

“Oh it was, no one, I was just talking to myself, I have a lot of stuff planned for later.” Alex shrugs off.  _ That’s going to take a little getting used to  _

“Well come on, we’re going to be late if we hit traffic.”

. . . 

Over at the city maintenance depot, Alex was met by Ray sitting outside the suburban, waiting for Alex. When Alex hopped out of the truck Ray breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh thank God, I knew you were probably just running late but I kept wondering if something bad happened.” 

“I’ll go clock you out Alex,” Tim adds as he heads inside. “Sorry man we just hit a bad bit of traffic.”

“Yeah, no worries.” Ray waves him off. “Yeah no I was just about to text you, and then I realized I don’t have your phone number.” He hops right back into the car and passes his phone over the middle console. “Here you can put your number in and maybe Luke and Reggie’s.”

“Um, yeah, yeah no I can’t do that, I don’t have a mobile phone.” He says looking over with his fingers clasped together. “Um...I didn’t have those back in Sweden.”

“What do you mean you didn’t have phones back in Sweden, you’re a seventeen-year-old.” he was about to start the car and then he froze for a minute. He never had to tell them to put their phones away at dinner, he never saw them pull them out during a movie. He never saw these guys with a phone. “You’re not kidding are you?”

Alex shook his head. He had seen Julie with her phone and Carlos with his iPad, they seemed cool enough but he seemed to coast by without it. 

Ray sits back in his chair. "You know you guys can talk about stuff that happened over there with me, right Alex? I'm gonna listen if you ever wanted to talk about it."He holds out this fist for him to bump. "Or if you ever need to talk to a professional, we can make it happen. I can't even imagine being your age and leaving everything you knew. Hell, I hadn't even been on a plane by, myself until I was 20" He starts to drive off "You and Reg and Luke, you're pretty brave kids."

"Thanks Ray." Alex breathes. 

Ray turns up the radio, and they both start dancing in their seats a little to break up the awkwardness as they head off to the hills of Hollywood to pick up Reggie. 

. . . 

After the Molina taxi service arrived home, Ray walked with Alex back to the studio, and Reggie and Luke were practicing. “So it has come to my attention that none of you guys have phones?” He asks. “Well, first I want to give you an award for being the only seventeen-year-olds to survive LA without a cell phone.” He says with a little laugh for himself. “But guys, we could have talked about this, we can get you guys put on a plan.”

“Oh that’s really nice, but we don’t really need them.” Luke offers. Julie had mentioned that he and the rest of the guys should have social media accounts, but after a while, Flynn did most of the posting on them, in an effort to get the band page more traction, whatever that meant. “We are trying to save up for a car to share. That way you don’t have to keep driving us around.”

“We can talk about the costs later, but I am not just going to let you guys wander around LA without a way to get a hold of me.”He looks over at Luke “Especially you riding the bus home from that bar, it's a miracle you haven’t been mugged or worse!” He takes a deep breath. “Please, just ease an old man’s conscience. I'll even pay for the upfront cost, you guys can pay me back as we go, and rent is now $25 to cover the cost of putting you on this plan. Deal?”

“You drive a hard bargain, Ray.” Reggie states as he shakes the man’s hand. 

. . . 

With the whole household in the suburban, they head off to the mall, and Carlos is given a little bit of cash to go off and spend. Julie and the guys headed right to the store with Ray, and Luke was getting especially nervous, and not because the hot dog stand was making him nauseous all over again. Julie takes his hand “Don’t worry, this is going to be quick, my dad hates going in the phone stores.” she smirks. 

They all browse the many phones, Reggie tries to leave a selfie on all of them. Luke looks around, but once he starts he just looks at Julie. “What’s the difference? These all look the same,” he says as he sets one phone on the table and the security cord pulls it back into the mount, and Luke nearly jumps out of his skin. 

“In reality, nothing,” She takes him by the shoulder. “What’s gotten into you? It's just picking out a phone.”

“I know, it's just… I don’t really know how to put it into words.” He points to a random phone. “What about this one?” 

She leans over and reads the information card. “You’ll need a bigger data package than that.”

“What does that even mean!” he whispers. “Okay, okay, maybe I am just getting a little too frustrated with how much things have changed since we were gone, I mean before we just got to kind of ignore all the stuff that changed and make music, now… I’ve kind of got a lot to catch up on.” He looks over at Julie “What if I’m not cool anymore?’

“Oh puh-lease Luke Patterson, you are a tall brunette that plays guitar in a band, you haven’t fallen that far.” Julie says with a roll of her eyes and she walks over to the other side of this display “This one is going to be your best bet, it's the same as mine so I can help you with it when you get frustrated, plenty of data, and we get to add your line for free.” She turns the display towards him. 

“Can I get the blue one?” He pulls out a set of puppy dog eyes. 

“Only if it makes you feel better.” She couldn’t help but laugh when he smiled again. “Yes they are the same, maybe if we ask Flynn she can get ahold of some “Julie and the Phantoms” stickers for the back of your clear phone case.”

“How did you know I wanted a clear one?” He asks. “Can you read my mind now?”

“Just trust me, I know.” She gives a laugh. “Maybe you can put a photo of all of us in there, kinda like putting it in a locket.”

Luke laughed it off. Yet a few weeks later he did just that. It was a family photo at Carlos’s baseball game. They had made it to the State Finals, so they were holding posters and wearing his team colors. Reggie and Luke were holding Carlos on their shoulders. Julie and Alex were holding up the plaque and Ray was smiling in the middle of all holding up one index finger because according to Carlos, “It was what the cool kids do.”

He put on a sticker, and his lockscreen was set to be a live image of when they played their first gig without the hologram act, Ray pulled some strings and the guy from Drake's came through. He also kept a spare pick in his phone for emergencies. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, the clear phone case is a nod to my fellow queers. If you know you know.


	6. Fighting Inside and Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for coming in later today than usual. I only planned on being a few hours later but then I was called into work! Okay enough about me on with the show!

Luke could not sleep, he tried everything. He put his phone away for an hour, he drank warm almond milk, he even opened up a math textbook that Julie left on his couch and read it. He got through an entire chapter before he gave up and decided to text Julie.

Hey, are you awake?

He even peeked out the garage door windows to see her window faintly light up with her bedside lamp. 

Yeah barely

What do you need?

I just need someone to talk to, can I come up?

Yeah

He ran inside with the softest footsteps and closed the door and she was sitting on the edge of her bed. “So what did you want to talk about, you look like you’re about to be sick.”

“I just… I haven't slept right at all, it's about my parents.” He started pacing the floor and pushing back his hair. He went on to explain the vow they all swore to, to completely avoid their parents. “Julie you were the reason we didn’t completely fall out of existence, if your dad found out we have been lying to him for  _ months  _ now, it would be game over. Restraining orders, jail time, and everything else. It's a nonstarter, we can’t go back now.” He sits in her window and as he struggles to find the next breath the whites of his eyes turn red. “But I just can’t stop thinking… about what would happen if they found out.” He bites his knuckles. “What if they turn on their tv and see all of us playing and think I was still mad enough to not tell them?” He knew the odds of that happening were slim, they didn’t watch TV that often unless it was the news. 

Julie offers him a seat next to her. “I get it, I mean I don’t but if I found out my mom was alive, and she didn’t come see us, I’d be shattered.” 

“Yeah,” He says closing his eyes firmly shut. “So how do I do this? How do we keep becoming who we are supposed to be if it could kill them to find out?”She wipes off his face. “Sorry, sorry, this is too much to just be unraveling tonight.”

“No, Luke this is good, you guys are in a sucky position, and I mean I don’t know about Alex or Reggie, but you have parents that would give anything to have you back.” She cups his cheek, the same one as that night after the Orpheum, feeling that ring on his face did help bring him out of his head. “You have every right to cry, or at least that’s what Dr. Turner would tell me.”

“Does he offer counseling on this kind of stuff too?” He mutters trying to make a joke. 

“Oh, yeah, at Stanford they have a whole college of psychotherapy for the newly alived, he was top of his class too.”

Luke lies back on the bed, and Julie follows suit. “I just wish there was some way for me to tell her, I mean she heard the song, but it's different now. I could actually be in their lives again. But I think if I showed up at their door I would quite literally kill them, they would just have a heart attack in the doorway... and if I’m being honest, some days that’s the only thing stopping me.” He starts digging his nails into his fists, and Julie takes his hand to open one of them up before they draw blood. “I even know what bus route to take if I was to go after work.”

She closes her eyes “Luke, I know you want to do this, I want you to too. But if they know, that puts them in danger, it is not even just if my dad finds out the lie. If anyone knew the  _ truth _ , forget the band, you guys are off to wherever they take people who were ghosts and just...  _ become  _ people again.” she squeezes his hand. “We were lucky Carlos only told us and not my dad, or my aunt, or god forbid the internet. It would have been over for you guys.” 

They laid there looking at one another, he knew she was right, it didn’t ease the ache though. 

“I know.”

“I am so sorry Luke.”

“I- Julie, you don’t have anything to be sorry for.” He sits up and leans on his left arm. “You know that right? None of this is your fault. You didn’t know that… playing that CD, and hugging us after the Orpheum was going to bring on all this.” He gestures around himself. “And I know how much this just sucks, I still owe you a lot for all that.”

“You don’t owe me anything,” Luke looks over at her and just shakes his head. 

“No, Jules I really do.”

“Since when I am Jules now?”

His eyes nearly pop out of his head “Well I mean, I’ve definitely called you that before, I mean your dad and Carlos say it all the time- and I’m sure Al-”

She giggles, “No, no it's fine. I like it.”

He grins. “Can I just stay… here tonight? I don’t want your dad to wake up and find me in the house, I kind of promised to not come into your room.”

“Yeah, you can stay.” She wasn’t even going to mention that he could simply just poof out. She turns off her light and hops back under the covers. “Goodnight Luke.” 

“Goodnight Jules.”

That night Luke stayed in Julie’s room, sleeping on her floor. She fell asleep after a few minutes, and after a while, Luke got out of this head, and even though he couldn’t have it all, he was glad she played that CD when she did. At least he got to give his mom the song, and she got to hear him sing it, even if she only thought she heard it in her head. If nothing else, she knows he is sorry, now if only she could understand just how sorry he was.

. . .

Thursdays after school had quickly become Guy’s Day in the household. Alex and Luke had the day off, and Reggie worked a half shift, and Ray managed to put in the work earlier in the week to take time off. Julie typically stayed over at Flynn’s until dinner and then rehearsals. “Okay men,” Ray starts as they all gather around the lawn. “Today’s activity is...Alex drumroll please.”

Alex begins to roll off a beat on his thighs, Carlos joins in until all four of them are rolling off in anticipation. 

“Nerf gun war,” He says, holding out Carlos’s tiny plastic blasters. “You start with these, I hid his bigger ones around the house, capture the flag style, losers have to do dishes and clean the battlefield.” He holds out a bucket. “You will be randomly assigned to a team, red versus green, and you will be identified by your bandanas.” Luke picked out a green one and tied it off in his forehead. Reggie and Carlos were red, and they agreed to tie it off on their arms. Alex was green and tied it onto his fanny pack. “And I will be the medic, I’ll also be cooking to stay out of the kitchen unless someone is actually injured.”

“Yes sir!” Luke and Reggie salute. 

“Alright, you have 2 minutes to mount your defenses for the flag, then I’ll signal when you can start the advances. Red team your flag in due east.”Ray points toward the left half of the house. “And the Green Team has their flag to the west. Now, on your marks, get set.” He starts a timer on his phone. “And go!” 

The players rush off after their flags, Reggie and Carlos head off to see their flag stabbed into the garden bed, and barricade the porch door with lawn chairs to prevent access. 

“Okay, now I am going to try and go get their flag, and you will stay and mount a defense against Luke.” Reggie says as he cocks his gun. 

“How do you know Luke is going to take the offensive?” Carlos asks as he locks the gate. 

Reggie just gives him a look “Come on Carlos, it's like you don’t even know who we are dealing with.”

He nods and looks up “So doesn’t that mean that they are expecting you to go too, if you let me I can sneak around the house easier, I’m smaller. Plus I can reload the blasters faster than you. 

“Oh yeah? Prove it.” Reggie says as he shoots his gun and a foam dart bounces off Carlos’s chest. 

Rolling his eyes Carlos picks up the dart and places it back in his hand. “Try to reload without emptying your barrel.” he chuffs, crossing his arms. 

After a scoff and fidgeting around with the plastic gun, Reggie gives up and fires the gun five more times to reload. “Okay if it's so easy let me see you do it.”

Without missing a beat Carlos fires the gun at Reggie’s forehead, picks up the bullet, and opens the quick release to reload, and whips the barrel back into place. “I’m going to capture the flag.” He then brushes some dirt under his eyes. Then Ray rings a bell to signal the game has begun. 

“Okay, so you are ready to do this, off you go padawan,” Reggie says as he turns the corner holding his blaster close to his lips. “Bring back some heavy ammo though. We are going to need it.”

Carlos nods and heads inside to scope out where the other flag was, after all his dad warned them to stay out of the kitchen. On the couch there was a larger blaster, still filled with ammo. He leaves the regular gun behind as he sees Luke rush down the stairs, they make eye contact and with only 5 bullets Luke points the gun for only a moment before darting off in the other direction into the front lawn. Carlos chases him and fires by standing on the porch, and Carlos showers him in foam bullets. 

“Ach-Carlo-I’m dead dude calm down!” He says laying on the grass. “How long do I stay dead again!?” He calls. “Like is this a forever thing?”

“You’re out for a whole minute Luke!” Ray calls from the kitchen. Luke crosses his arms and checks his phone. “Unless Alex revives you! He has to leave his post and touch your shoulders with both hands!'' He tosses out as he starts chopping up vegetables. He shrugs to himself, he was mostly making this up as he went along, just glad they were having a good time. 

With one of his opponents gone, and Alex guarding the flag, he was a sitting duck. Carlos runs up the stairs with his gun ready, half a barrel of darts left. However as he turned the corner to the bathroom, Alex was standing with the same gun, fully stocked and aiming right at him “This is the part where you run.” Alex reminds as he cocks the gun. That same rain that took out Luke claims Carlos with half the bullets. Carlos goes and lays on the floor as Alex heads outside to claim his flag. 

Reggie peeked over the barricaded door to see Luke laying on the grass checking his phone to see when his minute was up and he could reenter the game. Alex, having seen his partner’s untimely death headed out after him to revive him. Reggie, who was now the sitting duck, made extra sure that his flag was protected. “ This one is for you little man, fly high.” He says kissing his fingers and holding one up in the air. Luke was trying to hop the fence and Alex was running around the other side of the house to surround him. Reggie takes one shot to Luke’s arm and renders him dead. Alex comes around the corner “ Come on, it’s me Alex you are just gonna throw away our whole friendship for this?”

“Yes...that’s literally how you win this game,” Alex says taking his aim. 

“Oh ok just checking.” Reggie fires and hits Alex square in the fanny pack, then again in the torso. 

With both enemies dead Reggie runs into the house looking for the flag, and upstairs he revives his partner, they take the flag and rush it off into the kitchen to claim victory. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, yes I understand I hurt you with the first half but let it stand on record I am not a monster...yet.


	7. Pandora Couldn't Compare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for 1000 hits! I never would have thought I would get as much love for this story as I have. I sound like a broken record but thank you so much for all your support!

Luke Patterson spent his entire first lifetime as an only child. He will be the first to admit he gave his parents enough grief for 4 kids, but he never actually had siblings to prove it. He always thought of Alex, Reggie, and even Bobby as his brothers, and oftentimes he thought there really couldn’t be any difference between them and blood siblings. They shared whatever they had, and nothing was ever really too real or too personal. However, after living in the Molina household for 4 months, now, he started to understand just how wrong he was about how that makes a sibling relationship.

Julie and Carlos were the two closest siblings he knew, in this life or the last, but that didn’t mean they didn’t go at each other’s throats for what Luke thought was nothing. Julie never wanted anyone in her room without her permission, but she would even get frustrated if Carlos was just bugging her from the hallway. Carlos was always between begging Julie to go to his baseball games, or saying she was too clingy to be coming to them. They could start actually fighting one another and in 10 minutes be watching television as if it never happened. There were even some rules that were just for Carlos that never applied to him, Alex, or Reggie. 

He always wanted to have a sibling because his house was always so quiet, especially after his mom told him there would be no more band rehearsals in the garage, and then after that no more practicing in the house. Here, nearly everything was loud, Julie would play her speakers in her room, the shower, Ray usually had something playing when he was cooking, or prepping for his next photo shoot, and Carlos liked to play his YouTube videos without headphones more often than not. He liked it this way, before going home felt like he was sitting in a museum. 

He always felt like he was looking behind glass when he watched them interact. Sure he had seen Reggie and Alex and his cousins hang out with their siblings, but being around Julie and Carlos was a lot more authentic because they weren’t having guests over, they were acting like they would if no one was around. The first few weeks he tried tearing them apart from fights but after so long he just learned to pick his own battles. They always seemed to make up after, even without putting it in writing. 

The biggest thing he learned from observing them was the boundaries they made without even talking. Luke had decided to ask Carlos about Julie’s dream box, trying to figure out what was in it because he couldn’t go two days without wondering what she put in it.  _ Flying Solo  _ was even better than striking gold, but he swore he learned his lesson after Julie’s  _ many _ discussions about boundaries. Only he hadn’t. Every time she would try to keep the box out of his sight he only got a bigger urge to know why it was such a big deal. When they wrote songs she would bring it, but he never actually got to see all that she put in it. So one day, after emptying the dishwasher he asked Carlos, “So what does your sister keep in that dream box?”

“Her what?” Carlos asks putting down his game

“Her dream box, you know that white box with all the flowers on it? She keeps it up in her room. You’ve probably tried to look in it before right?”

Carlos rolls his eyes. “ No, why would I bother looking through that, if I’m going into her room to sneak around I’m taking her charger or the candy in her makeup drawer.”

Luke nods. “Okay, got it… got it. What drawer does she keep that candy in by chance?” He asks, leaning over the counter, gears turning behind his eyes. 

“Second drawer to the left, behind her lip gloss.” That was all Luke needed to hear to start sneaking up to her room. Just as promised, there was the candy, he took a sucker and as he looked around and right where it always was, the dreambox was waiting for him. It might as well have had a neon sign saying  _ OPEN  _ blinking back at him. “Just one look.” He whispered to himself.

Inside were plenty of papers, sticky notes, scribbles on the backs of receipts, small photo strips, and a pressed and dried dahlia head but there was one especially eye-catching thing. On this blue paper in big calligraphy letters, was the title to a song. “ _ Perfect Harmony.” _

He immediately puts it back, “One look, You said one look and now it's done. She’s probably going to bring it up when we start writing later” He says as he folds it, and puts it back inside, and places the box exactly as she had it on the shelf. But just as he is about to poof out, his resolve disappears and he takes the box back down again and opens the paper. 

_ Step into my world _

_ Bittersweet love story about a girl _

_ Shook me to the core _

_ Voice like an angel, I’ve never heard before _

So this was a love song, no doubt about that. The edges of the paper had little flowers and scribbles of drawings, some scratched off if she didn’t like it. She probably thought of it during that dance class with Nick. These lines were written in blue ink, and the next set was purple. Must mean it was a duet because they go back and forth like this across the page. 

_ Here in front of me, shining so much brighter, than I have ever seen _

_ Life can be so mean _

_ But when he goes, I know it doesn’t leave _

The next section was written in black, it was probably a harmony, given the title. He lays back on her bed and keeps reading. This was something else. She had written plenty of amazing stuff, but she never wrote an entire song without telling him. That’s why she made him a better writer, he could come to her with anything, and she seemed to have this magic way of pulling the right words out of him. She must not have wanted him singing a song meant for someone else. So in the box, it went, where he couldn’t, or rather  _ shouldn’t _ find it. “I should put this away.” He says as his trail over the next few verses. These words were completely Julie, but also… so different than their usual stuff. He could hear her voice in those lines, belting out as she played on the piano. 

_ The truth is finally breaking through _

_ Two worlds collide when I am with you  _

_ Our voices rise and soar so high _

_ We come to life when we’re in perfect harmony _

Luke nearly choked on his sucker. This wasn’t about Nick, he had poofed around the school enough to know that kid was not a singer, and his guitar skills were sub-par on a good day. To seal the deal, at the bottom of the page was the color-coded key. Purple, was Julie’s parts. Black ink meant it was a duet, but right next to that blue scribble of ink, was his name. He had never seen how she wrote his name before, and seeing it now, like this, had his chest feeling light and breathless. He shot up out of bed and read and re-read the lyrics over and over again. She had written it for him, for  _ them.  _ He studied all his lines as if the paper would crumble in his hands if he forgot. 

_ You set me free _

_ You and me together, it's more than chemistry  _

_ Love me as I am  _

_ I hold your music here inside my hands _

Once they all settled into his mind, he took a deep breath and closed the box, and her makeup drawer and poofed out to his bed. He kept thinking those lines over and over again. It wasn’t just him, he always kind of guessed, but with this was something different. Something better, he felt like he did that night he started glowing, he even kept checking his hands to see if he was. She clearly wasn’t ready to tell him, so this would just stay in the back of his mind until she was ready.

But now he could start going forward, he had been more relaxed since moving in but if this song meant anything it meant they both wanted more than just what they had been telling one another. So he could bolder, make a bigger effort than just trying to get her attention where he could. He set the paper down and with a long breath he pulled out his phone. He froze up at first at the thought of texting her, as if she would just sense what he was doing like it was written across his forehead. 

Would you want to go for a walk together after dinner tonight?

He felt so stupid asking her while she was at school, but within seconds those three bouncing dots show up and he stops breathing for just a moment. 

Yeah sure

Is there something we need to talk about?

No

I just think it would be nice to get out of the house

Okay

Sounds fun I’ll be there

He jumped off her bed feeling like the king of the world. It wasn’t a date, but they would get to spend some time alone. That wasn’t always a given in a house of 5 people and the fact his only privacy in his room was a curtain, he had to be a little bit more subtle about his gestures. But after reading  _ that  _ he could certainly make more of these gestures. He was right to have called her a human wrecking ball because that song had completely annihilated him. 

“Love me as I am.” He echoes reading that line over again. He could certainly do that much. More than that, he was willing to love her for everything she was and everything she would become. It’s the very least he could do, she brought him back to life with more than just playing their music. As far as he could see, she had a voice and a spirit that could part seas and stop time. 

Until the day came where she was ready, he would be humming those chords. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I had to do it to you guys.


	8. This Band is Back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay for today's chapter there will be singing, but I am sorry I do not write songs so it is a cover. If you want to listen along you can find it as Nobody from the musical Bandstand.

Reggie loved his job, the work was easy, he just had to make people smile. After working there for a while now, he had found out just how to do it and made notes. The job was laid back in the sense that he just hung out with the residents, but he was always on a sort of tight schedule. Book clubs, bingo, watching old westerns and sitcoms in the residents’ rooms, and he even participated in their exercise classes. The ladies loved his country music and he became quite the superstar at Lively Oaks when he would pull out a banjo. He liked listening to their stories, even when they would tell the same ones, and when they weren’t having the best day 

So news of the big festival fundraiser they had for a pool was an even bigger time to shine. He told Ray all about it on the way to work. 

“Well, why don’t you guys all go perform, I’m sure you can find some music you can play, I mean it won’t be original work, but it’s a gig right?” Ray offers as he turns into the parking lot. “Plus, I’m sure all those old gals would love to see all your friends, old people love that kind of stuff. They get so nosy in those living centers with nothing else to do.”

“Yeah, no that would be super cool, I’ll tell them after work.”Reggie says hopping out of the car.”

“Or you could just text them-!”Ray shouts as the door shuts. “Nevermind.”

So after everyone was gathered in the studio for rehearsal Reggie confidently held up the flyer. “I just got us our next gig, please, please hold your applause.” He says puffing out his chest. 

“Nice, where did you find it?” Julie asks, taking the flyer. “We have been looking everywhere and no one is biting.”

“It’s at my job, they are looking for entertainment for their fundraiser, and I wrote us down, we just need to find some music that they will like, I even heard that a few of the residents have kids who are talent agents, like Doris, she’s my bingo partner and she’s super excited to hear us play. Her son is coming for sure.”

Luke takes the paper. “No, no way dude, we would get laughed off stage if we played our music at a retirement home. In two weeks we can’t exactly pull a brass band setlist out of thin air, and we are  _ not _ playing covers. If we are getting noticed, it's gonna be for the music.  _ Our _ music.”

Alex rolls his eyes. “Come on, we have had 4 gigs in 5 months, and none of them lead to anything great, we are getting more followers online but we need to be playing gigs wherever we can if we want to start actually playing the Orpheum again, not just opening for someone who is.”

“Yeah, and what happened to Mr. “We played in front of clubs, behind clubs and book clubs”? What happened to  _ Ambush Mode _ ?” Julie asks. “A gig is a gig, especially if there is someone looking for talent. Reggie already has an in, so why not try it?” She loots around in her backpack for her laptop. “We need gigs, and this one literally cannot fall in our lap in a more obvious way.” 

“Okay, okay, but they don’t listen to just regular rock and roll, brass bands require, well, brass, trumpets, trombones, saxophones, and we are out of hands,” Luke states as he places the flyer on the piano. “How are we going to pull that off?”

“Oh, we actually got in because the college band that usually plays had to drop out with this scandal going on with a professor and some other thing, I wasn’t really listening, but we can probably put up a flyer for auditions.” Reggie offers. 

“Well what are we going to wear then huh?” he pinches his Poison singlet. “I kind of don’t have the vibe of someone you take home to meet your grandmother.” 

“You can wear sleeves for one performance, Patterson,” Flynn says walking in looking at her phone. “Leave the wardrobe up to me, I have connections. You guys don’t mind wearing dead guy clothes right?”

“All our clothes are dead guys’ clothes,” Alex states looking down at his hoodie. 

“Perfect,” Flynn states as she sits down and starts searching. 

Noticing how he was still not convinced she takes the guitarist over to his alcove to talk to him one on one. Alex and Reggie were looking over Flynn’s shoulder trying to pick out outfits. “Come on Luke. It's not going to be that bad if we do one cover performance, especially if they want to see us play our original stuff.” Julie urged. “I think it would actually be fun, like here, we went to go see a tour of this musical for class last semester, it's got this one song that I think could be really perfect.” She grabs her computer and puts it in his lap. “It's got parts for all of us, you and I both have a nice singing part, and there is a dance break for interaction, we can show that we are performers, not just artists. If we can hype up a crowd of 80-year-olds, we can hype up anyone.” She scrolls through the sheet music and starts humming. “ _ You know who tells me no, you know who tells me "I don’t think so’. _ ” She whispers. “It's the same vibe as  _ Now or Never _ , it's gonna be fun.” She smiles at him. 

He shook his head and before he could say no again: “Oh- okay fine, but I’m not wearing some ridiculous getup.” He says as he joins the boys in bouncing around, getting that pre-gig excitement he always gets after they manage to land a set. 

So they rehearsed for the festival, Reggie found a brass and wind section, and they filled a setlist. Reggie specifically requested some Frank Sinatra for Doris. “They are going to be so excited to hear us play, they already love my country album.” This got plenty of eye rolls. They were the main event besides the carnival games, so it had to be polished, and their demo had to be ready. Outside of school and work, it was solid rehearsal time for all involved. 

Flynn flooded every social media outlet with plenty of info on the event, canvassed the school in posters, and even managed to get some vintage clothes so they looked the part. Luke had a white dress shirt, black pants and shoes, and suspenders, which he was originally bribed to get into, but after she and Julie managed to mess up his hair enough, he said he looked ‘pretty slick’ in. Reggie needed very little, his wardrobe just needed small adjustments and he looked like an Elvis impersonator. Alex decided to go with wearing a striped shirt and slicking his hair back. When all the clothes came in Flynn had a full photoshoot ready, for them, as they were definitely eye candy for Instagram. 

Julie walked outside of the public bathroom in her dress, peach-colored, embroidered with cream-colored flowers, and her dance shoes. She walked in to see the guys posing in front of the mirrors set up in the staff break room. Luke turns around with the biggest smile. “Okay, I take back everything I said before, this is actually kind of fun.” he said as he takes a step back and offers his hand. “Hey, can I interest you in a soda-pop for a nickel?”

“You are ridiculous.” She still takes his hand. “But you look...swell.” She smirks. 

“Yeah, I thought it was a little too much.” He walks over to the stage that was just assembled in the garden. “You know this is a nice place, I could imagine getting old and going here.” He says as he walks around on the stage. “I mean if I age.”

Julie laughs as she spins around and lets the skirt fan out. “Yeah, it’s pretty impressive out here. Especially if they let the residents play, I could see an 80-year-old Luke crowd surfing, as long as you have your cane.” 

“Yeah, so, after we do our set, do you think you and I could go play some of those carnival games?” He asks as he starts moving the stage equipment. “I could even get us some cotton candy.”

She grins and nods. “I’d love that.” She looks around to make sure no one else is around. “Luke I-”

“Yeah?” Luke perks up his head then notices she was looking at him like a deer in the headlights. 

“Um, nothing, I was just going to talk about how I can cream you at Skee-ball.” She says with a smirk. 

“Oh I’m sure Jules, I don’t think you know who you are dealing with, I was an arcade champion.” he grins, thinking about how much he missed that arcade a couple of blocks from Reggie's old house, it probably got torn down like the rest of the neighborhood. They would all ride bikes down there in the summers when it was too hot to do anything else. "Come on, your dad probably is waiting for us to unload.” He says as he hops off the stage and takes her hand. “This is okay, right?”

“Yeah, it’s ok.” She looks up at him, eyes and lips beaming with excitement. She couldn’t pull out the paper just yet, but hopefully soon. For now, she was taking one step at a time. 

. . . 

In a matter of hours the garden was a full audience, with residents and family members kids playing with plastic jars of bubbles and behind the stage dividers, Reggie was hyping up Julie and the Phantoms and their temporary members, Alice the saxophone player, Wesley the pianist who also did some nice backup vocals, in her audition and Flynn came in on trumpet, it was her favorite instrument, and finally, there was trombone sibling duo, Harry and Katie. 

“Okay guys I have a lot of fans out there, so you don’t need to worry about letting them down, because they just want us to go out there and have a good time. Doris, Elaine, and Ethel already have our shirts and I think they are wearing them today, I don’t know but they are our biggest fans so if you need to look to anyone to hype up the crowd they are more than willing to cheer us on-”

“Is he always like this?” Alice asks as she watches him continue on. 

“Everyday.” Julie, Luke, Flynn, and Alex all simultaneously reply. 

“-So we’re going to just go out there and show them how awesome we really are!” He finishes throwing his hands up. “Phantoms on three,” the MC finishes the intro and everyone just starts on their way on stage. “Or we are just going to go right for it as I said. That’s good too.”

As they take to their spots to start up, the energy starts again, then Alex counts off and Reggie starts with the music. Wesley jumps and starts with the introduction and the horns fall in as Luke takes the microphone. “ _You know who tells me no, you know who tells me ‘I don’t think so’, You know who tells me no,_ ” He glanced at Julie as she was in the center swaying along, people in the crowd joined in quickly, older people rising up out of their seats to dance around. Luke moves his mic over to Reggie. “ _No--body!_ ”

_ “You know who tells me wait? _ ”Reggie adds in his mic as a few older ladies cheer. 

_ “You know who tells me ‘That ain’t so great’?”  _ Alex comes in, leaning over the drumset. 

“ _ You know who tells me wait?” _ Reggie comes back. 

“ _ No---body!”  _ All three harmonize as the front two lean back.  _ “So-o get outta my way.” _

_ “‘Specially if you don’t have something nicer to say.”  _ Reggie gives a wink which Doris, right in the front row, smiles and waves hello. 

_ “Go try to break someone other,” _ Luke just smirks at Reggie with another 3 part harmony.

_ “Go find yourself someone else to smother-r,”  _ With the older female audience fully schmoozed, Reggie falls back for Julie to take the mic as they trade places for another harmony. “ _ No-o, No-body, No-o.”  _

_ “You know who tells me ‘slow’?” _ Julie states as she keeps moving with the music. She turns her head to Luke. “ _ You know who tells me ‘that’s a no go’? You know who tells me ‘slow’? _

They both lean their microphones into one another as all vocals come in “ _ No----body!” _

Luke moves closer to her.  _ “You know who tells me ‘quit’?” _

Reggie also takes a step closer to Julie. _ “You know who tells me-” _

_ “You ain’t worth spit.”  _ Julie and Alice finish.

_ “You know who tells me quit?”  _ Luke repeats looking out at the lively crowd. He starts another male harmony  _ “No---body!” _

_ “So, get outta my way! Find somebody else who gives a fig what you say! Go! Discipline someone other! Last time I checked you were not my mother!”  _

Julie and Luke both start moving together as the saxophone and horns riff off. They were mirroring the motions of the other’s microphone stands, as if they were dancing with one another.  _ “You know who tells me ‘stop’? You know who tells me ‘You don’t have what it takes and you will never reach the top’?”  _ They freeze and look at the crowd, “ _ You know who tells me ‘stop’? No---body!” _

The music breaks for an interlude, and Luke takes Julie by the hip, she puts her hand on his shoulder. They had goofed around plenty in rehearsals but the way they were moving he was serious and confident in every step around the stage. He twirled her around and back into his arms, and as the horns blurt out some notes he hops offstage and opens his arms for her. 

One deep breath and she hops off after him and they join the dancing crowd in the grass. Luke holds her up by the waist and spins her around and people clap and cheer. They share a smile with one another as Wesley has the piano riff, then turn and dance with members of the audience, Her dad twirls her around like a top, a woman in a walker takes Luke and all but demands a personal waltz, and as Alice switches over to clarinet for a solo, Julie and Luke share looks looking for reassurance they were watching the time. As the horns begin to scat around Julie spins into the middle aisle, and Luke hops over a chair to join her. They dance back up to the stage and Luke tosses Julie up so she lands on her feet on stage. He gets a running start to join her, landing the jump and barely catching his breath. 

_ “So get outta my way!”  _ They both take Julie’s mic  _ “Find somebody else who gives a fig what you say! Go! Discipline someone other! Last time I checked you were not my mother-r,” _

The chorus joins in again, nearly as impressed at what they just saw as the rest of the audience.  _ “You know who tells me ‘stop’? You know who tells me ‘You don’t have what it takes and you will never reach the top’? You know who tells me ‘stop’?”  _

Julie and Luke both get big smirks on their faces. _ “No-body, Nobody, No-o! No-one tells me no! No-one tells me no!” _

Everyone onstage but Luke and Julie repeats as if to beg the question _ “No one tells me,” _

_ “No one tells me,”  _ They reply, not breaking eye contact with one another. 

_ “No one tells me.” _

Julie and Luke look back to the crowd  _ “No-o-obody!” _ The horns crank out the final notes and it drops, and everyone on stage catches their breath as the crowd cheers. They didn’t have to wait for much of a standing ovation, but even people walking in from the carnival games were clapping. The entire band gives a little bow as the crowd settles, just before Julie introduces the next song in the set, Luke whispers in her ear. “Look in the back, those are the game attendants, we emptied the carnival we sounded so good.” She took another look and he was right, they had those cheesy red and white straw hats. 

“Thank you, thank you all you are too kind, the only thing better than a standing ovation is when everyone is already standing,” She begins. “Now, we have another song for one of our biggest fans.” Julie looks over to Reggie. 

“This one is for you Doris, don’t think I forgot,” He gives a nod to Wesley and the piano starts. “ _ Fly me to the moon, let me sing among the stars.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For my very very patient Willlex stans, your time is coming, I promise I haven't forgotten.


	9. Eyes in High Places

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The love I have received for this story is almost too much for my heart to handle. I haven't even written 10 chapters and I am almost to 100 Kudos and I would like to thank each and every one of you!

As the carnival workers were taking down chairs, Reggie was visiting with his fan club, the extra musicians had headed off after their own fun but Julie, Luke, and Alex stayed to help clean up and listen in on Reggie and his residents. A tall man with a full suit walked in and looked down at Doris who was still gushing that her little buddy Reggie remembered  _ her  _ song for his performance. 

“That was quite a show you all put on, don’t think I’ve ever seen this place so lively.” The man states firmly, looking around. Julie and Alex were putting away chairs but stopped for just a moment to hear. “You guys certainly know how to get a crowd going. Crying shame you only do covers though.”

“Oh but Andy, they don't, Reggie has all these little songs,” Doris says, putting her hand on Reggie’s and tapping it. “He plays them after our book club meetings, he pulls out that banjo, and we have a ball!”

“Yeah we have original stuff,” Luke adds as he walks closer to take a chair. “Plenty of it, we just didn’t think that it would hit with our target audience here,” Luke says rummaging through his pockets.

Julie comes up from behind with the flash drive he was searching for. “This is our demo, including music from when we played the Orpheum.” 

“I’ll have to give this a listen, how can I get ahold of you guys?” He flicks out a business card. 

“Oh well we have a Twitter handle, and Instagram-” Julie mumbles off.

“And a business card,” Flynn states, pulling one out of her pocket. “It’s the first draft, but we are always taking offers.” 

“Julie and the Phantoms? I like the sound of it.” He says as he stuffs it in his breast pocket. “I’m assuming you are Julie?”

“Yes, and they are the Phantoms.” She points out Luke, Alex, and Reggie, who was now coming in beside her. 

“Luke,”

“Alex.”

“And so that must mean,” Andy says pointing over to Reggie. “You are my mom’s bingo partner Reggie, she talks about you nonstop.”

“Yeah, Doris and I kind of have this winning streak to defend.” He shrugs with a smile. 

“Well you keep up that energy, and we will be talking soon.”He offers his mother an arm. “Corn dogs sound nice ma?”

All five wave the pair off and then start screeching with joy as they all look at the business card. “Flynn, where did you get business cards with our information?” Alex questions. 

“Oh I have business cards for everything, if this thing doesn’t work out Double Trouble is ready to go at any moment.”

Julie rolls her eyes and hands the card over to Luke, “I’d give it to you to keep, but the flash drive fell out of your pocket during the first song. You are welcome.” 

“Thanks, Jules.” He says as he reads the card with a smile on his face “Andrew Findman won’t know what hit him.” 

Flynn turns back to the other two boys and mouths  _ “Jules?” _ and with equally surprised faces they just shake their heads in disbelief

. . .

After a full set and helping pack up, all members had been exhausted. As they were picking up the equipment, all four of them were still ecstatic and riding the high of the performance, and the little index card Julie had safely tucked away in her phone case. 

“Thanks for not dropping me.” She offers as she wraps up a set of wires 

“Thanks for trusting me not to drop you.” Luke replies as he sets down the tub of wires before her. 

Reggie and Alex both looked at one another and decided to take an extra full load to the suburban. “They are oozing chemistry,” Alex says with a smirk as they head out. Luke and Julie just laugh it off, pretending they didn’t hear it.

"I thought you said we weren't supposed to call it that?"

“You know, I know I was so dead set on no covers, but that was actually kind of fun, maybe we can do this next year.”

“Yeah, I think that would be fun, assuming we aren’t set up with world tours this time next year,” Julie notes. “Not that my dad would just let me skip school to do that."

“I think if we tried hard enough he would go for, I mean, just look at us, he let us in the house without too many questions. I mean, he thinks Alex knows Swedish.”

She laughs, “So that’s what you guys do on Guy’s Day? I thought you just played video games and barbeque.” 

“We do plenty of that too.” He smirks as they stack the last of their gear onto the cart. For a moment there was this silence, and they shared looks in the eyes and their hands. All Luke could think about were those lyrics, that blue paper, and that title. “Julie, I- We… I have a connection with you. Outside of just ghost magic and bigger than the music. I have feelings for you...You know like the ... romantic kind." He spits out. “I have for a while now.”

She turns her head. “I know- I- mean I do too, we haven’t exactly been acting subtle about it.” She brushes her skirt, making sure that the pocket zipper was closed and no blue paper was going to make a sudden appearance. She offers a hand“So, should we call this carnival a date?” She asks as he takes her hand. 

“Yeah, a date sounds nice.” He gives her hand a squeeze and only lets go to hoist the tub of wires on his shoulders. “Come on before they run out of the good prizes,” He grabs his guitar case and rushes off stage. He turns around and realizes he forgot the cart, and they both push it together out of the garden area. 

Walking around they turned quite a few heads, and many people stopped to praise their performance. When older ladies would make cute faces to each other as they walked by Luke and Julie would just laugh, “Apparently the onstage chemistry was noticeable huh,” Luke said as they got in line for cotton candy. 

“Yeah, I think people got the message.” She says as she holds her hands behind her back, there were plenty of whispers at the surrounding picnic tables. “They can’t all be looking at us, right?”

With a quick scan of the area, Luke leans in. “Hey, don’t worry about all of them.” He pokes his head around the corner and places some money on the fold-out table “One bag please.” he says as they bring over a bag of tri-colored cotton candy. “Come on, I see a spot for us.” He takes the bag and rushes over to the corner table with fewer people around. They dig into the bag and Luke bites into a tuft of cotton candy-like a rabid dog, which makes Julie giggle. 

She tugged at the little zipper at the side of her dress, going back and forth on whether or not she should show him. Even though they had seen one another nearly every day, this date felt new and exciting, and the song was… a lot on to place on something so fragile. But this was Luke, he always found the right words with his music, he would get the message. She took a bit of the cotton candy and ate it in small bits. "Luke there was-"

“Hey, come on they just put Carlos in the dunk tank,” Alex calls as he and Reggie run by, taking the pair out of their little bubble. Luke immediately steps out of the picnic table and holds out his hand for Julie as they go off running. Clad in swim trunks and snorkel, Carlos was sitting in anticipation for someone to trigger the seat to fall out from under him. 

“ Let me get behind this,” Luke says handing over some cash and getting a basket of tennis balls to hit at the target. 

He continually hits the tarp and never the big red target, and his last ball ricochets off the corner. “Come on this is rigged, I hit it!” He objects

“Then why am I still up here?” Carlos retorted, his voice distorted by the plexiglass in front of him. He sticks his tongue out. 

“Oh well, now he’s just asking for it,” Luke says forking over some more cash to the carney, and Alex and Reggie follow suit, all tossing balls at the board until they all land one and Carlos falls through. Carlos splashes down into the water below and everyone takes a step back as some water falls over the side. Luke took Julie by the hip to keep her from getting wet, but Reggie jumped directly into Alex’s arms, which Alex caught him just before falling over himself. But then a hand helped catch him in the fall. 

“Thought I heard you would be here Hotdog.” A familiar voice laughs. Reggie and Alex both turn their heads to see Willie. 

“I’m just gonna give you guys a minute,” Reggie says climbing down. He rushes off after Ray and Victoria who were also trying to dunk the youngest Molina. 

“Oh, hey, I didn’t think I would see you here,” Alex says putting his shirt back in order. 

“Well I saw your flyers all over town,” He comments, “and I… I gotta talk to you alone.” Willie mutters reaching for Alex’s hand. 

His stomach doing flips, Alex agrees and heads off back inside the center, Willie takes them to an empty bedroom and holds out a leather cord with a pendant on it. “This is Caleb's. He wears it under his clothes and he  _ never  _ takes it off.” Willie tries to touch the pendant and drops it like a hot rock. “I found it in his dressing room, and I still haven’t seen him anywhere, but every so often that thing gets-” Alex tried to pick it up but also dropped it “Hot.” Willie makes sure to check outside the window. “Whatever that thing is doing, Caleb is behind it, and if he took this off, it's because he found something more powerful.”

Alex starts pacing the floor, looking down at that necklace. “So what do we do? We couldn’t even figure out how to get those marks off. We just stumbled into it when Julie- no, no he isn’t coming after-”

“I don’t know!” Willie blurts picking up the necklace by the cord and putting it in his pocket. “Sorry, sorry, I’m just...I don’t know. As soon as he found out I was the one that told you the marks were dangerous, he ignored me completely, and frankly, that's worse than…” He stops to adjust the collar off his shirt. “The usual, if you think those zaps were bad, it can get a whole lot worse.” He stops for another breath. “There is one guy that we can turn to, Caleb’s old business partner. They both started the Hollywood Ghost Club together as a place for ghosts to come and be as they found out their unfinished business but after a while Caleb…”

“He wanted to keep his talent, and this guy backed out.” Alex finishes. “Why didn’t his partner cross over then? Or why didn’t Caleb just zap him out of existence?”

“Because Caleb was new at magic, I don’t know the full story but Caleb screwed it up and now this guy has no more unfinished business, but he can’t cross over. Caleb managed to wipe out his entire existence to the world and just replace it. All records of him, aren’t of him anymore.”He gulps. “And I think… I think he is trying to do whatever he did to you guys too.”

With a look of horror on his face, Alex can’t even look up to Willie’s face. “So our parents, Bobby, everyone will just have us wiped out of their memory? Sunset Curve?”

“It will be gone or rewritten without you. Same with everything here. You won’t age, and lifers and even ghosts won’t be able to recognize or even see you. You’ll just exist.”

After a deep breath, Alex takes Willie’s hand. “That’s not gonna happen. We are going to stop him. I can’t live-die… whatever that is, not when things are sort of starting to fall back into place. How do we find this guy if we can’t even perceive him?”

“Leave that to me, I’ve gotta work something out. As soon as I can get into touch with him I’ll find you.” He takes off his shell necklace and wraps it around Alex’s wrist. “It’ll be easier for me to find you this way.” He looks up at Alex’s big brown eyes and takes him in a hug. “I’m gonna fix this. No matter what it takes.”

They part and Willie poofs out, and Alex just spins the shells around on his wrist. He takes a minute to fully take in everything that just happened. Everything that is going to happen. Then he heads back out towards the sound of carnival music, his heart dangling somewhere in his stomach. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes! Caleb is up to something wicked as per the norm, but we haven't seen the last of our long-haired hero in shining helmet I swear.


	10. Look out, Look In

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a little short, but I think there is a lot covered! Thank you all for 100 Kudos! With that said I am going to bring you pain in a little while so have fun with that. :)

Alex had to break the news but given he could barely think about it without inducing cardiac arrest it was hard. Once they were all back at the studio and changed back into their own clothes, he couldn’t wait any longer. 

“Guys, I saw Willie today.” He says as he starts his pacing again. 

“Yeah, I was wondering how that went, apparently not good,” Reggie says as he sits up on the couch. “What happened, did you guys break up?”

“We aren't- that’s not - no no we didn’t break up. No, he came to tell me something about Caleb.” And with that name the whole room freezes. “He’s been missing and Willie has an idea as to why.” he takes a full breath. “Caleb is trying to wipe out our existence.”

“Okay so he only has the one card in his deck, we’ll just avoid getting stamped.”Luke says after taking a minute. “He can’t do anything without that stamp, right?”

“No, no it's not like last time, he is actually going to wipe our _entire_ existence, no one will remember who we are. Ghosts, people, anyone. Not before, and not now… I-I don’t know how he is going to do it but he had done it before on accident. He’s apparently getting a lot of power to be able to do it again, but more permanent.” We are still going to be around, but like ghosts again, only no one will see or remember us.” He tugs the shells wrapped on his wrist, hoping Willie would just poof here with the solutions

Luke looks over to Julie, and she couldn’t look up from the floor “Never?” the word was hollow as it passed her lips. “I would just forget you guys ever existed? No, there has to be a way to stop it, we did it before.”

“Yeah, there has to be something we can do. I don’t want to be forgotten, I just found a really good recipe for ribs, and Carlos and I are watching the Clone Wars and-”

Alex puts a hand on his shoulder. “Willie is going to find the guy that Caleb did this to before. Willie can get into contact with him, he knows how we can stop Caleb.”

“And by stopping him you mean… what?” Luke asks with a nervous look across his face. 

“I don’t know, he just said that this guy would know what to do, so we are going to trust it. Unless you guys know what to do.” Alex offers as a certain skateboarder floats through the studio doorway. Once again the whole room goes silent as Willie takes off his helmet. 

“I found the guy, he wants to meet with you guys, and he has a plan.” He rattles off as fast as he could, noticing how the news was being taken. 

“How? Alex asks with hope in his tone. “How can we get ahold of him?”

“Caleb did that on accident, so there are moments of weakness where he can push through, but... And he said if I am remembering correctly, so long as Caleb doesn’t find out we should be able to remember but whatever we do has to happen fast. There is a point of no return with these memories, if people start forgetting we have to move fast because if it goes too far, it all falls like dominoes.”

Julie was the first to pipe up, “So how do we stop Caleb from ever being able to do something like this again? I mean we can’t just undo what he did right?” She stops and gives all 3 band members a sincere look before the anxiousness gets to be too much again. The look on Luke’s face had brought tears to her eyes. “We have to get rid of Caleb, or… or something,” She looks Willie in the eyes “I can’t- I'm not just going to forget them.”

“Well, there is one way we can do this. Apparently, you can force a ghost to cross over without unfinished business. But it's risky, and a lifer has to do it.” He looks over at Julie. “Tomorrow night, meet me in the park at-” He grabs onto a pen and scribbles the address of a park on the water. “This is one place where he can break out pretty easily, come at night. I’ve gotta go, Caleb, is coming back tonight for a show, I can’t let him know I’ve been here.” He takes Alex’s hand and they head outside. “I don’t want to leave you as I have been.” He whispers 

“No, no you should get going before he notices.” He twists the shells on his arm. 

“Yeah I will, but before I go, I don’t really have the words so-” He leans in and gives Alex a chase kiss on the cheek. “I hope that gets the idea across.” He smiles and puts his helmet back on.

“Yeah, yeah no I think I’m getting the idea.” He cups Willie’s cheek before he turns away and returns the favor. “Kind of like that?”

“Yeah, see you later Alex.” He poofs out 

“See you later,” He echoes with a growing smile as he spins around in the yard. Once he catches his breath he comes back inside to three teenagers acting completely natural, as if they were _not_ just peeking and listening from the studio door. 

“Nice, real nice guys. Julie, your textbook is upside down. And nice girls magazine Luke.”

“Sorry,” Julie says with blushing cheeks. “We just couldn’t help ourselves. You guys are so cute.”

“Hey Miss Boundaries, you dished it out now you have to take it.” He jumps onto the couch. “But it was kinda cool though wasn’t it? I mean I just went for it.” He squeezes the throw pillow. 

“Yeah, you were pretty slick.” Luke says tossing another pillow at him “Real slick how you spun around like a girl in a field of daisies, Loverboy."

“We are playing this game now?” Alex says with a grin tossing it back at him. “Who spent all afternoon looking up YouTube videos on how to fix-” Realizing what Alex might say he jumps on top of him and they start wrestling. Eventually they both pipe up and that wave of unknowns washes itself back over the room. 

“So, we are going to force Caleb to cross over.” Reggie states. “After everything he has done, he is going to see what’s on the other side.” He chuckles. 

“I don’t care what he sees, he’s moving on and we aren’t going to get forgotten. Not back then, and not now.” He goes into his cove and pulls out their old album foldout with all their pictures. “You said that everything would get changed as if we were never there, well we will hang this up and make sure it still looks like us.” He tacks it onto the wall with thumbtacks. “And we won’t need to worry because as soon as we can find out how to force him to cross over we will do it. It’s going to be done and over with and we can go back to life like it was.”

“Yeah.” Reggie picks at the bass strings. “I mean it's kind of us or him at this point.”

“Yeah, but we can’t focus on that right now. We can't get a hold of this guy faster than tomorrow night, so why don’t we just try and get it off our minds.” Julie states looking at Alex and Reggie and giving Luke’s hand a squeeze, which he returns. “It’s us, we will find a way out of it.”

With the whole party in agreement, they head inside for dinner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember that youtube video comment, it's a surprise tool that will help us later.


	11. Fight Through the Dark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one of my favorite chapters to write so far, I've probably proofed it 12 times. Thank you for all the love and support

As much as Luke wanted a car, he had to admit the bus ride and walk home was pretty meditative. He did plenty of his best writing and got caught up on music he had missed in the last 25 years as he watched streetlights pass him by. He still swore that there wasn’t any truly great music after Pink Floyd broke up, but he was willing to check to be sure. That was when he got serious about his music beyond just playing to feel like rockstars for a few nights. If rock was dead he would bring it back himself. Someone upstairs must have agreed with him. 

Julie would send him links to songs that she liked, and Luke would keep them in a playlist so he could go back and hear them whenever he got the chance. They couldn’t outdo the greats, but they were still good. While the bus rides were relaxing, after a few busy weekends, he would cough up quite a bit to be able to poof more than a few miles at a time again. 

After all was said and done with Willie, Luke came back from work at 3 am and took a shower to wipe off the stench of whatever died in the bathroom of the bar that night. He laid in bed exhausted but he couldn’t sleep. Just as he rolled over to look at his phone he heard something coming from the porch. He ignored it and turned under the covers. 

Right as he turned off his light, through the curtains he could see the porch light turn on and a figure walks in through the barn doors. He poked his head out of the curtain. “Julie? What are you doing here?” He asks as he turns his light back on to see she was looking back at him as if he came back from the dead a third time, tears and all. She wraps her arms around him and squeaks out a sob. “Hey, hey hey… it's okay, I’m not going anywhere. You should be asleep.” She was spastic; he couldn’t even bring himself to pull them apart. He ran his fingers through her curls and pressed his nose to the top of her head. “It's going to be okay, Jules it's going to be okay what’s wrong?”

She sniffles. “I- I just had a nightmare. I kept asking where you and Alex and Reggie were. No one said anything and I came out here and your stuff was gone, and I kept looking for you but you were gone, and I tried playing the CD and it was broken… and-”

“And it was a bad dream. I’m right here.” He brushes her hair back behind her ear. “No one, not Caleb, not anyone else is going to take me away. Me, Alex, Reg, we are going to be staying right here.” He pulls her back in. 

“I’m just scared I’m going to fall asleep and wake up and not remember. I don’t want to forget you guys, I know I wouldn’t feel it because I wouldn’t know the difference… but you guys, you-”

“Hey, it's going to be alright,” He sits them both down on the bed. “Don’t think about it too much, because we are going to set everything right.” He kisses her hand to see if it stops the shaking. 

“I just, I don’t want to be who I was before you guys, I couldn’t even do the one thing I loved most.” She looks around at the bed, he had decorated it with old concert ads and his guitars. His floor was covered in clothes and his hamper was empty. “Can I just… stay here? If I wake up here I can at least be sure you guys haven’t disappeared.”

“Yeah, yeah you can stay here and I’ll sleep on the pullout.”He offers and right as he is about to get up his hand is tugged back. 

“Can you stay here with me? If you are here then I can be sure.”

He turns back and freezes at the question, and melts with a smile on his face when she mutters that last phrase. “Of course, anything you need.”

“I’ll need to be out of here early though, my dad would probably lose it if he knew I was out here.” She turns herself over in bed to look at those big brown eyes staring back at her. 

“I’ll set an alarm, and if he’s up I can help you sneak back through the window.” he rolls over and clicks away at his phone. “Although I don’t think he will notice as long as you are inside the house before 6.” He groans as he puts his phone away. “Oh god, that’s only three hours from now.” He rubs his temple. “Less than that really.”

“Working until 2 in the morning would do that to you.” She grins. “Your sleep schedule is pretty much nonexistent anyway.”

“And how would you know that unless you were awake to see it?”

She rolls her eyes. “Sometimes I wake up and I can see your light on from the window. I usually fall back asleep though. My dad also says you usually sleep while everyone is at work anyway.”

“I gotta do it some time, it’s boring when no one is here anyway.” He shuffles around the room trying to clean it up for her. 

“You don’t need to do that.” She reminds. 

He climbs into bed and smirks as she kicks off those monster feet slippers and crawls under the sheets. He follows suit and wraps one arm around her. “I’m not going anywhere. Now get some sleep, you have school tomorrow.” He orders with a big grin on his face. 

Eventually, she fell asleep, and with every little twitch she had, he was sure to make sure it wasn’t another nightmare, humming with the quietest, softest tone any beat that came into his head. He eventually went through her songs as many as he could come up with offhand. Soft as his voice would let him speak, he sang her _Bright, Edge of Great, Flying Solo,_ and even _Crooked Teeth_. The little spasms softened up, and her nostrils trilled against his pillow. 

He wouldn’t be forgotten, no matter what it took he wasn’t going to fade off into nothing. He needed to be here for Julie, for Carlos and Alex and Reggie and even Ray but most of all for himself. He could hold her, he could be seen, and talk, and sing to people again and he wasn’t going to lose it to some magician with a god complex. As much as it would be better for his parents to just forget they ever had a son, he couldn’t just abandon the idea that he would never see them again, in this life or the next. 

Then those chords floated in his mind soft like a blanket, and then those words that he was begging for her to let him see. He must have sung her that song twelve times, starting at the top whenever he forgot a line. He didn’t sleep the entire night, making sure that he could stay around when she woke up. He was tired and exhausted, but he couldn’t bring himself to sleep knowing she could start up another nightmare. 

“Whenever you want to give me the song, I am ready. I already love it,” He whispers which is met with a little twitch and a gentle snore. He smiles and pulls himself closer. 

Eventually Luke managed to doze off, but the smallest movement woke him right up, he couldn’t bring himself to be mad about how tired he was, so long as she didn’t get scared like that again. He could take a nap when she was at school, he usually woke up for breakfast before actually going back to bed anyway. But right now he had to chase off her bad dreams. 

Just before the sun came up and the sky was lighter, Julie woke up with a start, forgetting for a moment where she was, but then she remembered when Luke pulled her in just a little bit closer. That dream was a little too vivid, she could still see her father and Carlos asking who “the boys” were as if they didn’t know. 

“Morning,” He groans, wiping his eyes. “Did it help? Staying out here I mean.” He asks reluctantly letting go of her. 

“Yeah, no it helped a lot, I don’t even remember dreaming out here.” She swings her feet over on the bed putting her slippers back on. “I’ve gotta head back inside before my dad knows I went out here. But thanks, I really helped.”

“Anything for my- for you Julie,” He brushes his hair back as the incoming light shines through the window and his cutoff Rush t-shirt. 

“I’m sorry what was that?” She inquires with a growing smirk “What was that thing you almost said? Or have my ears deceived me?

With a roll of his eyes he grabs the other slipper and tosses it at her, and as it rebounds he catches it and they are one monster’s foot away from one another “Anything for my girlfriend.” he says with confidence. “If you are okay with that, are you?”

“More than okay.” 

“Well if you are okay with that, then what would my girlfriend say to us going to that formal that Flynn was talking about? I know it’s far away, but it gives me some time to catch up on what’s hot and what’s cool the past 25 years.” He takes her hand and starts moving his hips. “I think it would be fun for us, I can show you all my moves. It’s the least a _boyfriend_ can do.” He hears that giggle and he spins her around like a ballerina. “And I will be there, on time, showered and suited up, with whatever color tie I need. Because I, just like Reg and Alex, aren't going _anywhere._ You tried to get rid of us once and now you are stuck with us, fate demands it.”

“Fate is going to be unwritten if I don’t get back in my room before my dad gets up.” She says taking her slipper back and heading off. She rushes off as the padded toes thunk on the cement. 

“So,” Reggie begins dangling his feet off the edge of the ledge. “What’s that all about?”

“Nothing man, she had a bad dream, this is hard for her just like it's hard for us, I stayed up calming her down. It's nothing.” 

“No dude we are way past that, what ‘s this inviting yourself to her formal without us?” Reggie explains with a scoff. “You get a girlfriend and forget about your buddies?”

“Yeah what’s up with that?” Alex repeats “I know they might be cursed but I really want to wear that suit again.”

Luke rolls his eyes and just closes the curtain to his room. “Get dates then I guess!” He calls as he curls back up into bed. 

“Okay but like… my date is going to be a little… invisible.” Alex spits out. “So like-how do I fix that?”Reggie just gives him a shrug. 

“Maybe it's a costume formal and he can wear a morph suit?” He offers with a shrug. 

“That’s- that’s not gonna fix… okay I’m just gonna go,” Alex says walking down from his loft and into the house. 

“So what are you going to do when Ray finds out that you and Julie are a thing? Reggie asks as he changes into his clothes. “I mean I’m sure he knows but you definitely should tell him. He doesn’t always like to say it but he really likes an old-fashioned romance. So asking the dad’s permission is definitely going to need to happen.”

Luke just rolls over in bed. “I am going to ask him, I just need to find a way to break the ice, I mean I can’t just ask him over breakfast, I need to be tactful.” He looks around “Do you think there is anything in here that needs fixing, I can offer to help him fix it maybe? That way I start on his good side and go from there?

“I mean you could put new hinges on our bathroom door. I would like to be able to go to the bathroom without the sound of a demon screaming.

“Perfect, we can go to the store and get the stuff, I can hype him up, lay on the charm, and ease him into it. It’ll be perfect! You’re the best!”

Luke hops out of bed, pats his friend on the chest, and spins inside after breakfast, no longer feeling like a zombie who had about an hour of sleep in the last day and a half. “You know you aren’t dating him right? You’re asking to date his daughter!” Reggie calls. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you waiting for that youtube video comment, nope that's not it. I had you for a minute there didn't I?


	12. Missing Signs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so these chapters might not come in on time. One of my favorite people just entered hospice across the country so this chapter coming to you on airport wifi. If you want updates on the chapters, check-in on my tumblr account @lukesbirthdaycandle.

The day had its highs and lows, and dusk couldn’t have come fast enough for the band. schoolwork was next to impossible to focus on for Julie. Even her dance and music classes seemed to drone on for hours when all she wanted to know was how to stop Caleb. She was at her locker, checking off on her phone’s notifications when Flynn tapped her on the shoulder Julie jumped out of her skin. 

“Don’t do that!” she chides as she picks up her books. “Sorry, guess I didn't sleep as well as I thought I did,”

“What’s got you so twisted, we played a great set, and you and  _ Lu-uke _ ,” she snickers to herself. “You guys were like the perfect couple out there, and he won you that stuffed goldfish.”

Julie gives a little grin at that. She nearly forgot that performance was only a day ago, everything changed so fast, and if she didn’t act soon things would change forever. “Yeah, but something happened, Caleb is back. Well, not back, we can’t find him and Willie-”

“Willie? Like Alex’s boyfriend Willie?”

Julie takes a beat and decides whether or not to correct her “Yeah- yeah Alex’s boyfriend Willie. He thinks that Caleb is disappearing to get enough power to erase everyone’s memory of the boys, and make them ghosts again, well sort of… it’s complicated.” 

“So if Caleb, that magician guy that stamped them last time, wants to make it so no one can see them or remember who they are?” Flynn asks as she looks around and takes Julie’s arm to find somewhere more private. 

Running along with her, they hear a voice calling across for them and they turn around to see it was Carrie calling “Flynn! Julie!” her voice still had that sweet tone but it was clear that she was urgent. “Have you seen Nick anywhere? I swear to God he is a completely different person lately. He is missing classes at weird hours, he can’t play due to his attendance, and no one can get a hold of him. Do you guys know what is going on?” She was nearly accusing but it was clear she was nervous. 

“No, I have no idea what’s going on with Nick,” Julie asks. As much as Carrie could crawl under her skin she was right. Nick lived to play Lacrosse, and skipping music classes like he did was unheard of. “When was he in class last?”

“Four days ago, and he was only in two classes before leaving after lunch. I am just worried about him. Sure he might leave the occasional message on read a few minutes longer than I’d like to but he hasn’t opened his messages at all in weeks. I don’t think he’s touched his phone.”

Julie and Flynn look between each other. “If we see Nick, we will say something, we promise Carrie,” Julie says, giving her a smile. Carrie might be more frigid than the Arctic, but it is clear that she was worried, and Julie had only seen this side of her about four times on record. Carrie turns away and Flynn and Julie look to one another. 

“That...that doesn’t have any connection to your stuff, right?” Flynn says as they take cover in an empty classroom. “Carrie can be a drama queen but I mean she is right, that isn’t like Nick at all. And he has been acting differently, really ever since he came to your door with those flowers you said he had been acting weird.”

“Yeah, but I was talking weird like he wasn’t really taking the hint that I was kind of working on my relationship with Luke, not...you know, not weird like… like ghost magic.” Julie tools around for the security cameras. 

“Maybe it is, maybe Nick is just going through some personal stuff,” Flynn adds. “But as for the guys, what are you going to do about it? Are the guys going to have to cross over before they disappear again?”

“That’s what we are going to find out. Willie said that Caleb did this once before to someone, and if we can find a way for this guy to tell us how he did it, we can find a way to stop him before it happens.” She spins one of her bracelets around on her wrist trying to put those thoughts away like Luke said. Tonight she was going to find out what had to happen, and she would do it before Caleb even got the chance. 

Flynn nods. “It's going to be okay Jules.” She takes her best friend’s hand. “I mean, you guys are kind of fated to be in this band. Although just remember Double Trouble is always ready to go when you guys break up for Reggie to write that country album.” They link arms and head off after class.

“And I just got my spoons and scrub board. We'll just have to show him up at the Grammys when we get the award album of the year.”

“Sounds perfect.”

. . . 

After coming home from school, Julie makes a b-line to the studio and sees that they had the energy level of a funeral. “Guys, guys come on.” She says dropping her backpack. “No one has forgotten you yet, and my dad is worried about you guys, he said you didn’t even come in to eat lunch.”

“We just… we have just been checking on the photo making sure nothing changed. We have been just waiting for Willie to come back.” Alex throws some darts at the board. 

Luke takes her hand, and squeezes it tight, just to remember the feeling of how warm that ring felt in his hands. After going to sleep he had a few dreams that even though they weren’t related to what was happening, he still woke up feeling like a zombie. 

“We didn’t want to bum your dad out with how we were feeling, I mean you saw him at breakfast he was dancing around and happy, We can’t exactly tell him why we aren’t riding that same post-show high,” Reggie adds in. 

“Well, I am going to tell you all what you told me. You guys aren’t going anywhere. I mean come on you guys came back to life by magic when you were definitely supposed to fall out of existence, but it must count for something that you didn’t.” She pulls them all in for a band huddle, and as a group, they take a breath. “You guys are stuck with me the same way I am stuck with you, so we are going to find a way to make Caleb cross over and we can go and live a normal life. Well, as normal as we manage to do it."

They all laughed. "Let's just… go do something normal, what's something normal teenagers do?" Reggie asks as he pulls apart. 

"Um well for starters, normal teenagers have a car dude, and we still don't have one of those." Luke reminds, pulling up the newspaper he had been looking through. "I can't even find an ad for someone who is selling."

"Because you are looking in the wrong place for it Luke." Julie reminds, pulling out her phone. "No one can afford to put an ad in the paper anymore, that thing would be like a book every week. Plus do you guys have your licenses? Or do you just make those appear out of thin air too?"

They all go into a fit of trying to make one appear the way the other documents had. "Not this one. Guess we have to take the test again." Alex adds and he rips up the three social security cards that came flying out of his wrist. "And someone is actually going to learn how to parallel park this time." He gives a look at Luke. 

"You didn't parallel park on your test? Isn't that like...step 1?" 

Luke takes a step back and tosses his hands in his pockets. "I mean, I had my hand on the passenger seat, and the testing lady was pretty cute so I turned on the charm and she may not have noticed I got a cone or two."

"Try 4, out of 7," Reggie says rolling his eyes at the memory.

"Says the guy that never even took the test because he is scared of left turns." 

"Hey!" Julie interjects, laughing a little at the thought of what it must have been like to have been there in person. "Okay, so you all need to take your tests, why don't we see if my dad will let you go driving. If you guys do good he might just let us take the car out alone tonight."

They walked inside to see Ray was at his desk clicking away at photos from his most recent shoot, landscapes mostly for a lawn company. "Hey Dad, we just realized if the guys get their car, they don't have licenses," Julie says taking the consultant seat on the other end of his desk. "Do you think maybe we could get a driving lesson before it gets dark out?" She asks with puppy dog eyes. 

Ray sets his computer aside. "Well I suppose we can all take turns going around the block, but only one new driver in the car at a time. I trust you guys but I mean new drivers...raises my blood pressure." He says standing up and looking around for his keys, which Alex notices under a stack of papers and hands over. "So who's going first? I'm thinking of a number between one and ten."

"One," luke says confidently 

"Eight?" Alex shrugs

"Four point nine." Reggie speculates

"Eh close one. Seven point two, Alex you were closest so you go first." He tosses the keys back at him. "You three can wait here or out on the lawn." They all head out to the sidewalk and take their seats as Alex hops in the car. He had sat up front plenty of times, but in the driver's seat, he was now fully aware of how much tech was in this suburban. He tried to put the key in the ignition but realized there wasn't a key on the ring. 

"It's one of the new cars, you gotta put your foot on the brake and press the button." He says buckling in. 

"Yeah, yeah okay. I knew that." Alex says unclipping his fanny pack and buckling himself in with a deep breath.  _ Great way to start dude, you can't even turn on a car in this century.  _

"It's all good, my first car was a stick shift, sometimes if I get a little nervous driving I still reach down to shift gears," Ray motions for the center console and moves his foot over to where the clutch would be. “Okay now turn the knob to put it in reverse, but keep your foot on the break.”

“Isn’t it a little dangerous to have it as a knob? I mean if I was reaching over to change the station and I could brush it and start going backward on the highway.” He says pressing his foot firmly on the break to be sure the car wouldn't move. 

“It's okay, it's going to lock in until you push the break,” Ray assures. “Now, slowly take your foot off the gas, and look in the back window to make sure nothing is coming at you. You can check that rearview camera but don’t rely on it ” Alex follows the directions and slowly the car rolls downhill and into the street. 

“Yeah, okay it’s all starting to come back to me, I’m pretty familiar with this part,” Alex says as they start going around the block. 

“Good, now just take whatever turns you want and we’ll eventually head back.”

Back over on the grassy patch of lawn in front of the Molina’s Julie, Reggie and Luke were picking at grass 

“So you flirted your way into getting a driver's license?” Julie says with a smirk. “I just… it's weird to think about you guys back then. I’ve just gotten so used to you guys living here I forgot.”

“Yeah, sometimes we do too.” Reggie laughs as he leans back on the tree. 

“What’s something you miss about it? Like if you could jump back and do one normal 90’s kid thing what would you do?”

“Oh I would definitely run back and get my GameBoy,” Reggie says with complete assurance. “I miss that thing so much some days.”

“I would go back and just bike around, so I could see how different everything got.”He leans over and nudges Reggie who returns it and they both laugh. “I biked everywhere after I ran out on my parents. Especially while the guys were at school.”

Those last words sit heavy on Julie’s heart “You had to drop out after you ran off that night didn’t you?” She never really thought about it, the guys always made fun of him for denying being as smart as he was so she always had the image of him being this upstanding student. 

“My parents had the cops patrolling around the campus, looking for my bike and asking teachers if I was present. I didn’t really want to quit but I just wasn’t ready to go home to all that yet, and then one bad batch of street dogs later… you get the idea.”

Reggie nods “The cops even took Alex and Bobby and I out of class a few times to see if we had seen him. We lied of course, but it was weird not having him there anymore, except hanging out in the studio.”

“I know it sounds dumb, but I also kind of miss the cafeteria pizza.” Luke chimes in “Remember when we ran out of tip money for the week so you had to smuggle cafeteria food for me to eat?” He laughs it off. 

“Yeah, Bobby charmed a few girls into getting you juice pouches and Alex stuffed his sweatshirt with bags of chips.”

Julie just smiled at the idea of all of them back then. Just kids with no idea what was going to come next. They haven’t exactly moved too far from that mentality, but so much has changed. She takes Luke’s hand, at least now he knows where his next meal is coming from, even if it was leftovers. 

"But yeah. I guess I would also like to jam out in that old van Mr. Meyerson let us borrow for gigs. . It was a piece of junk but the seats were so nice.” Reggie adds as Ray and Alex turn the corner. 

“Yeah, it was easy to jam out when the CD player didn’t break and I would have to pry the discs back out with q-tips.”

“Q-Tips?” She asks “Why didn’t you just put in an aux cord and one of those handheld disc readers?”

Both boys laugh “Are you kidding me? That radio was lucky to have the disc reader.” Luke countered. “She thinks we were rich enough to have an aux cord.”

“Kids these days just don’t get it do they?” Reggie adds. 

“What aren’t we getting?” Alex adds in as he takes his seat and Luke stands for his turn driving. 

“Julie thinks that we had an aux plug in the Meyerson’s van.” Alex can’t even hide a snicker. 

“In Genevieve? We didn’t even have working seat belts in the backseats.” 

“Okay, okay, I get the idea!”She pleads. “Forgive me I was only negative eight years old.”

“Sorry Jules, it's just a little too funny.” He keeps a hold on her hand and gives it a final squeeze before heading off after the car. 

She just rolls her eyes and hugs her legs. “It's just so weird to think about- the whole thing, if I was back there with you guys, or if you guys were just, you know actually my age. Do you think we would still all be friends? Hanging out in the studio?”

Alex and Reggie look between each other. “Oh yeah, I mean we would have been friends sooner if anything.” Reggie states plainly. 

“We could have been friends for years, like you and Flynn are now, all 5 of us. We would have made the band in middle school like we did, you would have been playing the piano, Flynn on her trumpet or saxophone or whatever she wanted.”

“She would have left to hype up the band, she loves music but she likes her management position too much,” Julie adds. 

“And she and your mom would have gotten us every gig they could. Ray told us she had some pretty close connections when she was between bands.”

“Yeah, she had more friends of friends than I could count.” Usually thinking of her mom and the what-ifs were like a bullet to the heart. Yet that one was like a hug. She could hear her mom cheering her on about landing a gig. She lays back on the grass and the guys settle on the tree’s trunk. “I like that version of us.”

“What about this version?” Alex interjects. “Sick of us stinking up the studio?”

“No, this is my favorite version so far.” She looks up at the tree and the leaves dancing around. 

“Yeah, me too,” Alex says and he kicks back with his legs crossed and his hands behind his head

“Same here,” Reggie says and he sends his plucked blades of grass into the wind. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The 3 boys are the only ones that I will accept millennial humor from, and I couldn't miss an opportunity like that.


	13. Out of Sight Out of Mind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the late chapter, still trying to keep up. Thank you all so much for the comments and Kudos, it makes my heart so happy to see support.

After a little bit of driving around, and lying and saying that the boys were already certified to drive in Sweden, he agreed to have them take their road tests here as soon as they could get appointments. He also let them go out for a solo trip to the park because “Flynn wanted a late-night photoshoot for the page,” So Julie even committed to the deal by packing up all her makeup and a few changes of clothes into a duffel bag so he didn’t ask any further questions. He did offer his photo expertise several times, but Julie assured him that it would happen another time. They all piled into the suburban and Luke took the driver’s seat and Julie took in the directions on her phone. No one really had the words to say the whole way there. 

They all come out and walk up to Willie who was sitting on a bench with his legs bouncing so fast they could charge a phone. Luke took Julie’s hand and they both shared a look 

“Whatever it takes.” He mutters under his breath.

“Whatever it takes.” She repeats. Alex runs up to Willie and takes a seat next to him.

“So what’s the plan? Is he just going to show up here?”

Willie holds up a jar of dried plants. “If I sprinkle this stuff I found in Caleb’s dressing room around, and read off,” He holds up a piece of notebook paper. “this, He should be able to talk to us for as long as the moon is showing, and tonight should be good for that.”

“So let’s get it started, I mean we kind of are on a time crunch,” Luke suggests looking around for any witnesses. So far they were the only people in the park that didn’t reek of weed. 

“Yeah, yeah no.” He stands up and with a deep breath he starts shaking the stuff as he mutters the words under his breath in Latin. “ _ aperire portas, ponite Uriam ex adverso milite Curtio, ostendere populo in tempore illo oblitus.”  _ He mutters under his breath over and over again until slowly a figure appears out of a shimmery veil, slower than what they usually see when poofing. 

Then a man, standing in a rust-colored suit with a checkered tie looks at the group with eyes wide with excitement. “Hey, hello there. Sorry, it's been a while since people have actually looked right at me. I’m going to need a moment.” He nods and brushes off his suit. “Okay okay, introductions, my name is Harrison Michael Plathers, and you all are?”

“Sorry for the rush, but we are kind of on a time crunch here so can we get this going?” Luke offers as he sits down to take in all the information. “How do we make Caleb cross over?”

Julie slaps him on the chest and Alex and Reggie shoot him a look “The man has been through enough, maybe we can be a little more polite.” She chides 

“No, no he is right, I mean they are right? I’ve been trying to stay up to date on that stuff in case this day ever came. So, making a ghost crossover without unfinished business is a dangerous thing, it can only be handled by lifers, and from what William where told me, you guys are in some kind of in-between stage, so we need lifers.”

Everyone takes a glance at Julie and she just nods. “What do I need to do?”

“Essentially you have to set a trap for him, you draw” he holds his hand out for a pen and paper. Willie hands them over and he draws a rune in a circle, resembling a curved H with dots on the horizontal line. “This is a moon glyph for Will, not you of course William, but someone’s personal will, to live, to stay or go but when you toss in these phrases,” He writes down the words, occasionally scribbling out words as he remembered the correct spelling. “think of it like a fast pass to the afterlife, if he or any other ghost touches it they are gone faster than you can say goodbye. And finally, they only work on full moons, complete full moons.” He glances up at the sky “And it seems you are a month early, last night would have been the best night to do it.”

“So what does that mean? Is he going to make us disappear before we can make him cross over?” Reggie says standing up

Harrison straightens up his tie. “We will be cutting it close. Caleb was studying ghost magic for months before he even figured out you could make someone cease to exist, and years to actually attempt it, but what he did to me… well I have been checking in on him and he’s never even attempted it again, so he wouldn’t know the first place to start. You guys will be cutting it close, but there are ways to make him trip up along the way. When in doubt: inflate his ego during a performance, he physically cannot get away from the spotlight.”

“And what do we do if he gets the job done before we can stop it?” Luke demands looking him in the eyes. 

There was a baited silence as Harrison found the words. “I’ve been looking through texts for undos and redos, but once you are gone… That’s it. We can’t do magic, we can’t hold ingredients for potions or interact with anyone or tempt them. This is the most interaction I have had in 50 years with anything. Once this happens to you… it's like living in a bad museum, you can’t ever interact. And no one will remember you to get the job done. Once it's over, it's over.”

After that, no one could find something to comfort that reality. Being a regular ghost was no picnic, but at least there was a way to get a reaction out of people if you found yourself starved for attention. People still remembered you were once around: Lit candles, left pennies on headstones. Even getting wiped out of existence seemed simply compared to watching everyone you loved simply live life as of you were never there. Falling out of it was something else. 

“Then we will make it happen, we can even make it happen,” Willie says taking the paper. “I’ll screw some stuff up, mix around some stuff in his potions and keep the crowd going longer every night.” Willie offers. “I’ll make it happen.” 

Alex was going to speak up but all he could do is stand up with him. “It’s going to work out, Thank you for your information. Is there anything we can do for you?”

Harrison shakes his head. “No, I can only hope that when Caleb crosses over, all his magic is undone. If he is, then I can finally cross over.” He nods. “It’s the only part of the world or life that I haven’t witnessed.”

“We can make sure you aren’t alone again, if we pull this off we’ll find a way to undo this to you.” Luke vows holding out his hand, Harrison reaches out only for it to pass through. 

“I appreciate the effort, kid. 

“It's Luke by the way, sorry for the whole introduction.”

“Nice to meet you, Luke.”

“I’m Alex, and this is Julie,” Julie gives a little wave. 

“And I’m Reggie.”

“It’s my pleasure, and of course William knows how to find me, but after tonight it's only going to be more difficult. Full moons are best, New moons are next to impossible. But I don’t exactly have much of a schedule so I’ll just be waiting for the call.” His image starts to shimmer away. “Alright, It's almost time for me to go. Good luck.”

He turns around and leans into the glow that eventually flickers out. They all take each other’s hand. 

“Willie? Can I see that paper?” She says. She reads the words over, mouthing each line carefully. “This should be easy enough, now how do we get Caleb to step on this rune?”

“We have time to figure it out. Now come on, I’ve got a missed call from your dad. He is probably wondering where we are and if we are on our way home.” Alex says, pulling out his phone. 

“Yeah, we should be getting back.” She nods. “We can take this on with a clear head tomorrow.”

They all take one another’s hands, with Julie on one end and Willie on the other. 

. . . 

They spent the rest of that night attached to one another. Willie hung around on the countertops, occasionally leaving for an hour or so to keep up appearances at the club. But the four of them hung out in Julie’s room all night. Right as they were going to pack up to go to bed, Julie offered to have them stay here for the night. They brought out the blow-up mattresses that they all had slept on so many months ago. They blew one up for Luke but as soon as her dad had made his last round and they turned down the lights, Julie had eventually asked him to come over once she was sure there would be no extra check-ins. This got several looks from Alex and Reggie once their eyes adjusted to see them there, but no one wondered why. It wasn’t as desperate as the night before, but still Luke always had something touching her, a foot, an arm, whatever was comfortable. 

“You know you are freezing right? If I hadn’t known any better I’d assume you were still dead.” She whispers. 

“Why do you think I am trying to get so close to you? I need some heat.”

She smiles at him. “I suppose,”

“Now we can’t do this every night, but if you ever get scared like this just let me know and I’m right there.” He kisses her knuckles. “Even after we send him away.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, thanks again for last night.”

He tilts his head to get a better look at her face and brushes her hair back. He doesn’t say anything, but just remembers how it feels to have someone looking back at him. He charted where those big dark brown eyes had those light flecks of copper, it was hard to do in the dark but he took gentle care to get it done. 

“What are you thinking about?” She asks 

“Just thinking about what you said out in the front yard.”

“I swear to God.” She rolls her eyes. “I am so sorry I forgot that you guys didn’t have Aux cords yet” She mutters with false enthusiasm. 

“No, no not that, although I still think that is fucking hilarious.”

She turns over with a smile and he pulls her into his chest. “No, about how surprised you were to find out I was a dropout, I guess I kind of started thinking about, you know going back and finishing what I started. I wasn’t a star student but I think I could try and do pretty well for myself. Then I kept thinking about how much I could bug you if I went to school with you, I can’t just be invisible, poofing around where I want anymore.”

“And my attendance record is breathing a sigh of relief.” She gives him a playful glare. “But yeah, you just have to find a way to tell my dad you didn’t actually graduate without getting grounded for lying. Because I can imagine as soon as he remembers that bit you’ll be in deep trouble.”

“Well, what happens when we cannot get a hold of our Swedish GEDs? We have to go and make up a class or two, if I’m careful I can get out of my math credits and maybe health class.”He rests his face in her hair. “So is that a yes? You want me at school with you?”

“I think I could get used to you hiding behind my locker door if I can hear your footsteps, and I think you deserve to walk across that stage and get a diploma, all three of you do.” He kept making these plans to help distract her from the possibility that everything could go wrong. For that, she was grateful because at the very least she could imagine it all happening. “Although I have a strict no PDA indoors rule, nothing is more obnoxious than seeing couples hold hands on the way to class.”

“So what I am hearing is I get PDA outside?”

“Impossible, you are impossible.”

“That did not sound like a no.”

“Alright!” She whispers wiggling out of his grasp. “Okay, fine, but only outside.”

“Good enough for me.” He pulls her right back in. 

Plastic screeches around as Alex turns around and gives them a look. "You guys suck at being quiet." He says as he grabs onto his pillow. "I think it would be nice to finish high school, maybe we should all go." He looks over to Reggie who was starting to snore so Alex leans over and kicks his mattress to wake him up. He rolls over with a start trying to remember where he was. "What do you think Reg? Wanna go back and have that senior year we had planned?"

He wipes his eyes and wraps himself up in the blanket. "Yeah… Yeah sure whatever, just don't make me do that new math Carlos does." 

"I think it looks like fun." Alex says "They still dissect stuff your senior year right? I thought I would hate it but Ms. Geraldine let me try it out on an extra one and after you get over the smell and the sounds it's interesting."

Julie gives him a nod. "You'll have to pick certain classes but I'm sure they would work it out for you." She looks over to Reggie. "What were your favorite classes in high school Reg?'

"Oh I really liked woodshop, and I signed up as a Teacher's aide for Mr. Windham's 6th-grade theater class, sometimes being at work reminds me of that, although I don't run to the copy machine as much, and there are less sword fights, although not by much." He shrugged. "I liked the book learning a lot, but I really liked those. Our senior year we were supposed to be getting one of those agriculture classes and raise ducks. I wonder if they ever did it."

"Was this the inspiration for the country music album?" Julie says with a smile. All three of the boys laugh. As long as they could remember Reggie wanted to be a cowboy when he retired from music. He swore up and down that his grandfather was a rancher, but his mom assured them he was an accountant from Iowa who watched one too many western movies. 

"So what do we say boys? Next fall we start our senior year?" Luke says sitting up on Julie's bed. 

They both nod and give cheers of agreement. 

Settling back in, with their hearts warm with the excitement, they all manage to go to bed a little easier than the night before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment below if I need a hurt/comfort tag after doing stuff like this to you.


	14. For all Your Repair Needs, Call the Molinas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next few chapters are going to be a little shorter, I promise they will be worth it. I just did a mini-interview on my tumblr account @lukesbirthdaycandle, so if you have any extra questions or just want to hear me ramble on it is up and ready for you, and as always my asks box is always open! I skimmed the surface on most of then but I can always share more!

After everyone had gone to work or school, Luke went to the studio and started hatching plans, he started thinking of how they could trick Caleb into touching the mark. He could hide it on anything but he had to make sure Julie said the words before he could let go. He could hide a dozen of them in his club, but that could force other ghosts to cross over. They could lure him out somewhere, but then they run the risk of him doing his magic faster. He was about to start banging his head on the wall when he heard the gate to the backyard creak open and Ray come down the patio, Luke scrambles to put everything away. 

“Hey Luke, I got out of work quicker than expected today, and I was just thinking, you wanna come with me to get lunch for everyone? I mean we have been slacking off on making lunches his week so why don’t we go on a little adventure and get everyone some deli food for lunch.”

Shoving Harrison’s paper in his journal he nods, looking around the room. “Um, yeah, that works. And maybe after we get that done we can head to the hardware store? The door to our bathroom is coming off the hinge so I just need to get a new one and an extra hand putting it together.”

“Oh yeah, of course, I’ve been meaning to fix that ever since you guys moved in. It shouldn’t take too long for a couple of experienced handymen like us.”

“Yeah, yeah no my dad did a lot of stuff like that. I used to just hang out while he worked.” He says turning his head around before realizing what he said 

Ray just nods along. He was smart enough to realize that not everything about their parents was bad, but he still wasn’t going to pry them on how bad things got before they showed up in his driveway. “Well then let’s get going, we’ve got to get there before their lunch hour, and then we have to track down wherever Alex is this week.” He tosses the keys over to Luke. 

In the car, they start playing music and Luke is tapping along with both hands on the steering wheel. They get stuck in some classic LA traffic as they just need to move one exit over, and sitting back Luke looks over to Ray. “Do you offer relationship advice?”

Ray laughs. “Well, that’s one way to break the news to the girlfriend's father. But yeah, what do you have weighing on your chest Luke?”

He rocks back in his chair looking for the words. “I saw something I wasn’t supposed to… nothing illegal or anything, it was a song she wrote. It was so good and it showed me that I should have been making my intentions to date Julie a little clearer. Only if she knew what I saw, it might ruin everything. So how do I make up for something she doesn’t know I did? 

Ray sits back in his seat, this one was more than what he was expecting, “This… this sounds like an invasion of privacy, which isn’t exactly good for a new relationship. So I guess what you need is a concrete sign that you won’t do it again. You have to show her that you learned your lesson.”

“Yeah I think I have a plan for that, is there anything else?”

“Just accept your fate, you just dig yourself a bigger hole by lying that you haven’t seen it, and you’ll be in big trouble, especially with Julie, she’s kind of big about privacy, I’d blame it on letting her build all those forts as a kid.” 

Luke laughs at imagining a buck-toothed little Julie hiding out in blanket forts with Flynn, probably with a big sign that says no boys allowed. “Do you think she’ll forgive me?”

“Well I don’t know what you did to find the song, but I think if you wait for her to be ready, it might cushion the blow, and as her father, I am never going to tell you to make things happen before she is ready.” He changes the song on the touchscreen. “But when she is ready, just come clean, take the heat for it, and then show her that you have learned your lesson.”

Luke nods. “I’m not sure if it will work, but I think I can get my apology at the craft store, can we add that onto the list of places to go?”

“Sounds good, what do you have in mind?”

“I can't say just yet, but I had an idea after watching some videos.”

“Well, I’m glad. You are a good kid Luke, but as her father, I am required to give you the whole speech about what happens if you make my daughter cry.”

“I’d rather hear it from you than Victoria.”

“Oh no I can't help you with her, she’s just been waiting for this for some time. Mostly out of love because she thinks you are sweet on Julie, but she’s definitely going to lose her mind.” He slaps Lukes’s chest as they finally reach the exit ramp. “I’ll break the news to her while you are at work, with traffic like this she won’t try to hunt you down for a lecture.”

“Thanks,”

With a big brown bag full of sandwiches, they head off after Los Feliz schools, and drop off sandwiches for Julie and Carlos, then track down Alex, who was power washing bird poop off of a gazebo. Finally, they managed to catch Reggie in the middle of some kind of pool noodle/balloon game. He must have been winning because he was wearing an elaborate balloon crown. 

Then the two got to work putting on new hinges on the door. It took a few tries and a little bit of swearing but they eventually got it to close and open without any noise or issue. They stood there for a little bit looking at their hard work. 

“So I guess while you two were off playing handyman I was supposed to pick up all your children from school and work?” Victoria says with her arms crossed standing just before the piano. “Did you drive all the way to get them all lunch and then forget to actually pick them up?”

The two men look at one another then at their watches on their wrists. It was 4:45, definitely overdue for school pickup as well as the end of Reggie and Alex's shifts, which ended at 3 and 3:20 respectively. "You could say that we got a little off track, this job took a little longer than we thought.” Ray schmoozes. Carlos comes in to see the door and pee, as per the norm after school but this time it was a little more urgent. 

“You are lucky Julie thought to call me, she was worried sick, she thought something happened. She was on the phone with Alex and Reggie the entire time it took me to get there”

They both look at one another and nod before heading inside to make sure she is okay. She was standing at the gate, just about to come inside the studio and she takes a breath as she sees both of them safe. She knew that it was just a mix-up, after all, she remembered him, Reggie, and Alex just fine but it was just so much easier to know when they could look at one another. 

“I am so, so sorry  _ Mija, _ I did not mean to scare you like that I just didn’t check my phone or the clock for the time.” Her dad starts taking her in for a hug. 

“Yeah, we just forgot about the time,” Luke adds as she looks over Ray’s shoulder. 

“No really guys it's nothing. I just got a little paranoid.” She pulls away from the hug. “I had a little freak-out and now everything is alright. Now let’s just… get to rehearsing.” She says trying not to seem too obvious in front of her dad.

“You got it, boss,” He salutes behind her, and Victoria comes over to Ray. 

“So I’m assuming Luke was trying to suck up to his girlfriend’s dad and you just took the bait hook, line, and sinker?”She quips.

“I mean, I said we should get lunch for everyone, he said he wanted to get the door fixed and he needed an extra hand…” He crosses his arms. “It’s all good, we are going to figure it out, just like they are going to figure it out. You worry too much, they are still kids.” 

She takes a seat on the brick garden steps as they all start warming up from behind studio doors. “So what do you do if they don’t work out?”

“I… I don’t think we are going to have to worry about that for a long, long time.” Ray says sitting down across the walkway from her as Carlos rushes out of the studio. “I think they are gonna be fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I'm a sucker for Ray and Luke comforting Julie. What can I say? Thank you guys for all of the love and support!


	15. Kitchen Prep

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for another short chapter, but I hope it is a little comforting. Time for the moment we have all been waiting for, or at least I have been waiting to show you. Thank you so much for the support, and as always, if you want to talk you can find me @lukesbirthdaycandle on tumblr. and if anyone knows how to edit links to make master posts please let me know
> 
> Also given yesterday's news Charlie if you are reading this just let me know, don't worry I have 2 nurses for roommates I will be able to recover.

Reggie had been making a list of things he needed to incase things went south. He didn’t have anyone like Alex had Willie or Luke and Julie had one another, and getting erased from all existence was a pretty bad time to start dating. 

He was also plenty happy with everyone he had. His older siblings always made it seem like having a younger sibling was hell on earth, he assumed it must come from when they got older because he always thought it was fun hanging out with his little sister and his students when he was in Mr. Windham's. Plus, hanging out with Carlos and even Julie was always pretty cool. Hanging out with Ray was just as fun as he imagined it when he was invisible, and the two of them hung out a lot, mostly trying to cook. Reggie used to watch his mom cook all the time while he did his homework at the dining room table, and he remembered a lot more than he thought. Ray had suggested they meal prep some meals so he could make lunches for everyone. 

“Okay, so this recipe makes 12 servings, so we will have 2 meals for everyone,” Reggie says as he carries an armload of ingredients from the pantry. 

“Okay perfect, do we have the containers?” Ray asks as he checks on his phone for the recipe and organizes the produce. 

“Check”

“The oven is preheated?”

“Check.”

“Alright so let’s get to chopping these up to make our dumpling filling.”

They both get to do just that, with a towel on their left shoulders, working and eventually whistling in unison. 

“Where did you get this recipe?” Reggie asks, tossing the diced cabbage into the pot. 

Ray just shrugs it off. “Somewhere online, I‘ve just been looking up things that store well in the fridge. So we have these, and if we are still feeling ambitious We can start making tamales and stick them in the freezer so if you guys get hungry you can just fire up the oven and make some up.” He looked at the island and the counter which was full of kitchen stuff. “Doesn’t it get a little intimidating to look at all of this stuff? I mean I‘ve been cooking more since you guys have come around but I am no chef.”

Reggie just shakes his head. “Nah, I’ve never had so many home-cooked dinners in years. It’s been super nice.”

Ray smiles as he tosses in the mushrooms and starts carving up the chicken. “Yeah, it's crazy, I was just looking at the calendar this morning, and you guys have been staying here for almost six months. It's so weird, some days I feel like it's been a week, and some days I swear it's been forever.”

“Yeah, I definitely feel like it's been longer.” Reggie states as he takes a colander full of vegetables to the sink to get washed off. “I’m really thankful you guys let us stay out there. All of us are, it’s cool being back there again.”

“Again?” Ray repeats. “What do you mean by that?”

Reggie takes a minute to realize what he said. “Um yeah- again, like when we used to rehearse with Julie, she showed us around the studio so many times, when we got here I felt like we already had been there.” He keeps his eyes on Ray. 

Ray just gives him a slap on the back. “That’s what I thought you meant, you’re a good kid Reg, I’m glad you guys had made it home out there. I know I bring her up too much, but I just wish Rose knew you guys. I used to just see her when I looked at Carlos and Julie, but I swear I can hear her when you guys talk.” He sets his knife down. “After you guys put that Findman guy’s business card on the fridge I could hear her saying something like “Look at our kids go.”” He shakes his head, thinking about his wife’s sweet accent, Victoria abandoned hers after years of the corporate world, but Rose always slipped into it whenever she got too excited, and occasionally too mad. “It doesn’t mean as much to you guys, but she would have had a ball listening in to your rehearsals. It makes thinking about her easier on me. Sometimes I'll pretend to talk to her because she's always there in the back of my mind cheering you guys on. I know I sound crazy.” He wipes his hands on the shoulder towel and gives him a shrug. "Oh no Reg I'm sorry I-"

Reggie turned his head away, trying not to cry at Ray’s speech. “No, no it's okay.” He stammers as he sets his knife down. “It’s just the onions. I forgot to spray the knife with cooking oil like that one video said.” 

Ray takes him in a hug “Reg, green onions don’t make you cry.” He gives his sous chef’s back a pat. He starts to sniffle himself. “I’m happy for all you guys, I know I talk about how you all, you made Julie’s life better, but it’s not just her.” He takes a long breath. “Oh, maybe it is the onions.” He says as they both hang onto one another. 

“Yeah,” Reggie agrees. 

They part and get back to cooking, going back and forth about other things they can add to the filling and how they can make little packets of sauce to go in everyone’s lunch boxes. But standing just off the staircase was Luke, Alex, and Julie who were frozen looking out at the little show. Luke and Alex both about to start tearing up themselves, Julie was just smiling at the scene before them. 

“Should we say anything?” Julie asks as she turns her head to see on either side of her the boys were having a moment of their own. “I’m just going to give you guys a minute, I’ll start the movie.” She heads up to her room but also finds Carlos sitting at the top of the steps listening in. She takes a seat with him and wraps an arm around him. _ Guess green onions are a lot more potent than we expected _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More dad Ray content in the works, because damn does this man love spending time with his 3 ghost sons.


	16. Couting it Down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today I lost one of my favorite people in the world, so this chapter is going to be short. I debated on where to put it in but today, to celebrate his life, it is only fair I tell a story that hit a little bit too close to home for me to write. Thank you to everyone for your love and support, it makes me smile even when I can't seem to do it myself.

“ _ It’s like you are in a bad museum, you can’t interact,” _

Alex had that phrase ringing in his ears for days as they started solidifying the plan. Caleb usually walked around Hollywood looking for new, lost ghosts and would buff them on the shoulder, tagging them for Willie or someone else to take them into his club. Either that or he would make Willie visible to lifers to drum up business. So they were going to have to wait for Caleb to walk into the park tagging ghosts and step on the glyph long enough for Julie to finish the verses. Next, came the assembly of backup plans, and Luke and Reggie had plenty of caffeinated nights and days anticipating Caleb's moves. Alex had joined in plenty, but he was typically the voice of reason in these plans, which meant he needed sleep.

The stress of the last week since the carnival had worn him out like an old sock Now that people could hear him scream in a museum it lost that effect it had on his first date with Willie. He had gone back and forth for about a month deciding what to call that and he decided that 'date' was the best-fit term. 

Now that they had that moment outside the garage, he wanted to call Willie his boyfriend, and he had done it in front of everyone but Ray, and Willie. He didn't know who was going to scare him more to use it. 

He fully understood that Ray wouldn't care, he would actually be grateful that Alex had decided to tell him. But he learned once that you can't unring that bell.  _ But this is different.  _ He reminded himself. 

_ You can't be afraid of who you are. That's what you said last time.  _ So after hearing what Ray had to say about Rose and them. He knew the very least he could do is be as honest as he could be. 

So all while he was at work he rehearsed how he would say it, it every bush and every wad of gum on the benches until he could say it confidently. "You are worried about nothing Alex, you said he took you in when you were wearing a pink tux, I doubt it's going to shock him. And maybe Melanie already mentioned it."

"It's Julie, and I can worry about nothing really well, it's kind of my thing at this point," Alex says as he hops onto the passenger seat of the truck. "And no, she wouldn't, she knows that it's kind of a big thing for me."

"Oh your right, Melanie is Justin's sister." He says looking off. "Either way, Ray isn't going to care if you are gay. Just like we don't care. I mean Garret cares but he also wants your number, don't worry I just gave him a fake. He's not your type anyway." 

Alex just rolls his eyes and holds his hand out the window. 

"No, but I'm serious man, when we get back just sit him down in the car, say it, and then you guys are on with your day. Band-aid is ripped off. It's not gonna be like with your parents, LA dads are way more relaxed."

"Yeah I know it's all going to be fine, but as soon as I get the guts to do it I just...can't. Then I start telling myself how easy it is and how I'm a wimp for not doing it."

Tim nods, "You know what you need? You just need 20 seconds of bravery." He hears Alex scoff and he straightens up his posture. "No dude, I'm serious. I did it before I told my parents that Rhys and I were getting married. You just start counting in the back of your mind, you go and do it, and the words are out of your mouth before you hit 20. None of that introduction nonsense. Just look him in the eye, and say "Ray, I'm gay." Yours even rhymes. And it's quicker to say, you'll only need 10 seconds of bravery. Just put it out in the world and deal with what comes of it later." 

So as they pull into the depot, Ray is waiting in the car. 

"Ten seconds, that's all I'll need." He mimics as he slips his phone into his fanny pack and takes a deep breath. He hops into the car. 

"Hey, you got out early today!" Ray says, holding out his fist to bump. 

_ One _

_ Two _

"Yeah, yeah we checked everything off super quick today," he says as he starts, Tim was right this wasn't going to need twenty seconds. But he was still going to ease into it. 

_ Three _

"I've gotta tell you something." He says right before Ray puts the car in drive. "I'm gay"

_ Four _

_ Five  _

_ Six _

Ray takes a moment, just to put the words together. "Thank you for telling me." He says putting his hand on Alex's. "I just gotta ask, what took you so long?"

Sitting back in his seat, Alex just shrugs. "Last time I did that, it didn't go so well. So you don't- you don't care?"

"No, no of course I care. I'm glad you told me, Alex." He sets a hand on his shoulder. "I just want to make sure I didn't screw up somewhere and make you think you couldn't say it to me."

"No, no it's not even close to that, I've wanted to for a while, I just didn't really know when to spring it on you." 

"Well, that's perfect. You can talk to me about anything, and as for those last people you told. It's their loss, because either way, you are a pretty great kid." He looks over at him to make sure he heard him. "You know that right? You are a truly remarkable kid Alex. No one can change that about you." He shakes Alex's shoulder. 

_ Someone is working pretty hard to try though  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of the biggest reasons I love this show is Carlos Ponce created a father figure so close to my father and grandfather. So for this chapter, I took a few pages out of my own story of telling them. To anyone who hasn't had such luck coming out, just know out there somewhere who feels relief getting to see and know who you are.


	17. Time Crunch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating like I usually do, I am, as the youths say, going through it at the moment. Work is piling up so I may not be able to keep up the way I typically do but rest assured I have too many plans for this story to just fall off the face of earth.

Victoria was always going to be the cool aunt. From the moment she turned 17, and her aunt Helena passed away after helping Victoria have her first taste of alcohol, she knew that being a cool aunt, and letting nieces and nephews let loose in exchange for having them always come to you when they need it, was even better than having kids of her own. Luckily she had one sister that wanted a family. 

However, without Rose, Ray could barely pull himself together to be a father. He was certainly never absent in his kids life, he and Rode always agreed their relationship was always a duet, a joint act. When she died he realized he didn't even know how to stand without her to lean on. So he stumbled a good many times before landing on his feet. Only when he did land, he apparently picked up 3 white boys along the way. 

When the news first came that this arrangement would be permanent, she certainly thought her brother in law lost his mind. Yet every time she came over, every facetime and baseball game, she not only found that these boys relied on Ray, but he relied on them. He would look for his keys and one of them would have them. He would rush out the door and someone would double check he had his camera bag and all his flash drives before he could speed out of the driveway. 

She spent plenty of time promising that she wouldn't get attached to them, she wouldn't act like they were her nephews, because that would be an insult to Carlos, and put Julie in a weird position if she ever needed to open up and talk about them. She wouldn't dare see her sister's children overshadowed by anyone, certainly not by 3 strangers.

Making good on that she walked in on dinner to see the whole table was talking about a dance, they even had Flynn over. Ray was trying to find some time in everyone's schedule to go and get dresses and suits, and then get hair done. He had pulled out white boards, papers and calendars, and soon his own hair. 

"What about two days before the dance?" He offers. "We all have some time to go after school, Luke you can be a little late to work it's all going to work out."

"No!" Flynn states. "We are not getting picked over dresses two days before the dance."

"Why don't we just order them online?" Ray offers. 

Julie and Flynn look at one another then at him with something skin to disappointment. "The sizing is never going to work out. Celia's has openings for us to try on dresses and have them sized, we just need to get them there in time." Julie joins in. "She just doesn't let you come to the appointment alone if you are under 18."

Ray rolls his eyes and scribbles off his work on the whiteboard. 

"Hey hey hey! What is going on here?" She asks, setting down her bag. 

"Well the kids want someone to come with them to get dressed up for the formal at the end of the month, and they need an adult present at the fitting, and I cannot seem to find time to get everyone in and out together and I really do not want to be making all these trips to get it done.”

She takes a look at the schedule crumpled up on the floor. “Well, what about tomorrow, I take Julie and Flynn, and then you can take the boys the day after while they have the day off and the girls are at school.” She offers, examining the paper. 

He takes a breath. “Yes, please Vic, thank you!” He stands up and hugs her. “Send me all the pictures, I really want to be there Julie, I promise, but you know I’m a little bit slow on stuff like dresses.” 

“It’s alright Dad, It will be fun.” 

“Yes! We can make it like a girls' day, we can go see a movie, and maybe do some other fun stuff!” She says with a cheer. 

“And that way you will know what color tie to get,” Julie says looking over at Luke who was resting his head in his forearms on the table, just glad that was over. He smiles at her. 

“Do I get pictures too?” He asks with a grin. 

“Do  _ we  _ get pictures too?” Alex corrects. 

“Yes, of course, I’ll send them in the group chat.”

Ray brings the trash can over to clean up the mess around him. "And you know what we are going to do after we get you guys those suits, all three of us and Carlos are heading to that waterpark he has been talking about. But you gotta keep it quiet" he looks over his shoulder to Carlos who was playing games on his iPad in the living room across the staircase. "We're gonna surprise him, we'll call it an early Guy's Day.' 

. . . 

So as promised Flynn and Julie had an appointment set up in a dress shop that did custom fittings of rented dresses, and they had the entire shop to try dresses on. 

Flynn had plenty of choices to pick from, she filled her arms with options before running off to the dressing rooms, but Julie looked at each one, carefully thinking it over. 

“Everything alright  _ sobrina? _ ”She tempts as she pulls out a blue dress with a skirt full of ruffles, “What about this one?”

Snapping out of her trance Julie perks up her head. “Yeah, we can try that one on.”

“What's going on, you can talk about it with me,” She sits them down on the benches between two mannequins. “What’s troubling you?”

Julie immediately shakes her head. “No, no it's alright  _ tia,  _ I promise I am just a little bit out of it.”

“Well, are you sick?”

That was one way to put it, the way everything lined up, the formal would be the night before the full moon. Before they sent Caleb to cross over, and they had so many backup plans set up, and she and Willie had been poofing around to be sure she was going to be right where she needed to be to get the job done, but the anticipation was killing her. She was losing her mind trying to make sure that in all of her pictures of them they looked the same, she wouldn’t blink and with a wave of some magic wand, Caleb would just make her forget. “No, no I’m not sick, just stressed out I guess.”

“Well that’s no wonder, living in a house full of boys would make anyone stressed. “ She grabs a few more dresses and puts them in Julie’s arms. “So let’s have fun doing some girl stuff today, no need to worry about boys, you just pick out something that makes you feel pretty.” She sends her off into the dressing room and Flynn walks out in a pleather red dress and heels that added 6 inches to her height. She also had a white feather boa for effect. “How does it look?”

Victoria was just about to send her back in to change, before she remembered she was the fun aunt, even to Flynn. “If you can walk out of the store in that, it's yours.”

“Oh sweet! Bet!” She struts off and as soon as she walks past Victoria her heels catch on a stray cable and she tumbles down. “Alright, alright, but can we put the dress in the maybe pile?”

“Sure.” 

Flynn takes off the heels and walks over to Julie’s fitting room. “Everything going okay in there?”

“Yeah, I just need a hand.”She steps out and Flynn pulls the ribbon corset shut and Julie twirls around in the floor-length gown. It was navy satin on the top and faded into a deep royal purple at the puffed sleeves. “I just don’t know about this one, it’s going to be hard to move around in, but I like the color.” They both stand in front of the vanity mirrors to snap a quick picture to send out, as well as a few more just for fun. 

“I can do that, I'll get you some more like that,” Victoria says as she ushers them back into their dressing rooms. The girls strutted, spun, and even danced around the store in their dresses, Flynn decided on a black and white dress topped with a suit coat, and the tailor even offered her a top hat to go with the ensemble Julie was swaying on the podium in front of the mirror, she had tried on every dress that was offered to her. She found herself falling in love with that dress again, twisting her hair up to see what would go best with this, and sitting down in the layers of fluff feeling like a princess. 

“You really seem to like this one,” Victoria says pushing some of it aside. 

“Yeah, but what if the dress is too much? I mean it's not like it's prom, and the skirt is too bulky to dance in, and I don’t know it doesn’t fit my usual image,”

Victoria shakes her head. “No, no it's going to be perfect, you are going to get to dance around like a princess, it will be excellent practice for your  _ quince,  _ after this dance we ought to start planning for that.” She lifts her niece’s chin. “You look beautiful Julie, and if you feel beautiful in it there is no reason not to get it. Your image is whatever you want it to be, Julie, if you want to be that rockstar sometimes, and a princess spinning around a ball, one doesn’t get rid of the other. That’s just who you are.” She pinches the tulle sleeves. “I think your mother has an old wrap that would go well with this, we can go through her trunk and check.”

Julie stands up and smooths out the dress. “Alright, I think I want this one.” Flynn does a little dance with her dress bag folded over her arms and gives a little squeal. 

“Okay, okay now we got to go through your mom’s jewelry too.” She says taking her hand and getting her into the dressing room to get changed into normal clothes. And I already call dibs on those black gogo boots you have in your closet.”

Julie just rolls her eyes. They hand off the dress to be hemmed up and they are told to come back in two hours when the alterations are complete. Victoria treats them to some fast food and ice cream, and to pass the time they all walk through the shopping district and window-shop. It wasn’t a flask of tequila like her aunt had done for her, but at least she wasn’t just the hammer of justice in this household. She could let loose and have fun, and the girls weren’t on edge around her. Although as things started to settle while they were sitting at the picnic table, Julie seemed to be thinking of something miles away. 

“What is it  _ sobrina _ ?” she asks leaning her head on Julie’s shoulders. “You still seem lost.”

“It’s nothing, I’m just remembering, putting all of this stuff in the back of my mind so I don’t forget.” She pushes up her glasses. “I hate that we have to forget stuff sometimes.” Flynn nods along with her, ready to catch Julie if her aunt starts asking too many questions. 

“I know sweetie, it's not easy to forget, well if you are anything like your father it's very easy to forget- but you know what? We can’t live life hanging onto just memories, we will forget to make new ones.” She rubs her hand on Julie’s back. “And I know I was hesitant about those boys, but I think you guys have made a lot of fun new memories together. But I know it's not the same.”

She tilts her head onto her aunt’s shoulders. “I don’t want to forget them either. I just want things to stay right as they are right now.”

“Well, I can’t promise you all that, but I don’t think those boys have any intention of leaving you anytime soon. I see that they fit in just fine. Especially, Alex, he’s a sweetheart. He is reviving my houseplant, but I think I’ll just let him keep it, you know your mom was the expert planter. I just kill all the little cuttings she would give me." She sits both of them up so she can look Julie in the eyes. “But the moment they get on your nerves, I want you to call me so I can get you out of that house, 4 boys and your father? I can’t even imagine, and I certainly do not want to.”

“Alright  _ tia _ ,” Julie mutters. 

“Now, how about after we get your dress, we also get you two nail and hair appointments, for this dance, my treat. That way I can see you girls all dressed up before I fly out for work that night. It will be like I’m driving you there myself.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know what's better than Victoria being an aunt to Julie and Carlos? Victoria being an aunt to Flynn and the boys. If you want to hear more of my ramblings about this show, I am in the works of some more stuff on my Tumblr account lukesbirthdaycandle.tumblr.com


	18. I've Told You Hundreds of Stories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I have been working on some other new stuff on my Tumblr @lukesbirthday candle, and so my asks are open for other works you guys might have in mind! Once again thank you for every comment, bookmark, hit, and Kudos, everytime I get notified of them I have to double-check in case it was a mistake because I am in awe at people actually reaching out. 
> 
> I know I said I don't write song lyrics, but I am experimenting, I certainly don't think I can do an entire song, but I did give you guys a little bit of original content.

Songwriting always came easy to Luke, but more often than not if he ever felt himself running dry he would get a little too frustrated. Although until very recently, he never had someone to calm him down. 

For Julie however, songwriting was always an uphill climb. The lyrics always seemed too simple or too wordy to flow with the notes she wrote. Notes came easy, something about watching them fall and lift on the staff made her heart beat easier. 

He was laying on the old couch in the studio and after trying out the chords he thought would sound so great turned out to be garbage, the entire bridge had to be scrapped. Julie, who was working on a new song at the piano came over to see him putting away his guitar and closing up his journal to sit next to her. 

"Are you having better luck over here at least?" He asks looking at her neatly organized pages of notes and lyrics. His journal at this stage in writing looked like a hurricane of lyrics, arrows pointing around and trying to fit in a few notes here and there. He cleaned up on his final drafts, but at this stage, he felt like this song would never see such a point. 

"It's coming along, slowly but surely." She glides her fingers across the keys, then stopping to record the notes. "I might scrap this part though to make room for Alex."

He put his hands on the keys, and his fingers found themselves playing those scales she taught him. 

"Oh, yes a key change!" She says as she takes the pages. "How did I miss that?" She pulls out some white-out and paints over the last few bars. 

Luke plays the scale again, then tries his hands at playing a few keys. "What if it went like this?" He hits plenty of flat notes, but Julie just lifted his fingers up so he could get it right. She fanned herself with the drying page. 

"Yes and then we have a few bars of bass, and then we fall right back in with Alex and then." She moves his hand over near her and has him press down on the keys. "Go grab your notebook, we need lyrics." She demands, giggling as she pushes him off the bench. He opens it and before Julie looks at the words she runs her hand over the pages. "You're almost out of pages. Looks like you'll be needing a new one soon." 

"Yeah, but I can stuff a few extra pages in there for the time being. It can't just be any old journal, it's gotta speak to me." He opens it up to the page he shut it on moments before. He leans himself over the long end of the piano and taps his pencil around on the pages. 

"And why did that one speak to you?" She pulls her hair back to get it out of her eyes. 

He runs his thumb on the side, the pages trill as they fall back somewhat flat, the binding had been cracked from years of abuse in the last three decades but it hasn't snapped yet. The cover had stickers from some of Sunset Curve's biggest gigs, as well as one from when his parents took him to San Diego, he wrote most of  _ Late Last Night _ during that trip. "Well, I got this one at a record shop, the guy made me a deal, if he gave it to me at half price I'd give him the right to sell our demos at half price. Wasn't such a bad deal, he called back to buy extras once."

"You guys always have a story about Sunset Curve, why don't we have any stories like that?"

Luke just shakes his head. "Well we have one really good story, but I think it would make people's heads explode if we went around telling it."He smirks at the idea before closing the piano case, moving her eyes away from the keys and on him. She had the most beautiful brown eyes, they stared right through him like a laser beam against paper and straight into his soul. “It would start something like this: So Alex, Reggie and I had just died, not exactly having the best time, but after what I swear was only like an hour, some random crazed fan pulls us out of her radio and tells us that we have been dead for 25 years.”

“Oh so now I am a crazed fan?”

“You were enjoying it before we got there, and you know it.” He kicks his leg over to straddle the bench and presses his forehead to hers.

“Yeah all 3 seconds of it before you started screaming.” She says as she scrunches up her nose to stare him right back down. 

“Anyway, she starts going off at us for being in  _ our  _ studio, saying that it was hers now, she even tries to impale Alex with a cross, She even had the nerve to move all her stuff in while we were gone! She tried to kick us out but we smoothed it over with her dad after we showed him how we played. He was super into it.”

She pulls apart so she could have room to roll her eyes. “You mean you interrupted my dinner.”

“Hey, hey now, who is telling the story here?”

“Sorry, sorry, continue.”

“Well she grants us the luxury of staying in  _ our  _ studio, how generous of her, and eventually I hear her play the piano and I’d swear she killed me on the spot with her performance only a bad batch of hotdogs beat her to the punch.”

“So you grovel to get her to join your band?” She tosses in

“Now I think Alex and Reggie were doing most of the groveling if I remember the story correctly.”

“You definitely don’t, I remember you making heart eyes at my leftovers and begging me to take your song.”

“It was a rent payment, and I was being cordial.” He says pressing his hand to his heart as if she wounded him. “And I didn’t just give this girl a song, we performed it together to get her back into her music program and let her see how good we could be together. I think it all worked out for the best, she’s got this voice that could part the oceans.”

“So how does this story end? Your stories usually aren’t this long.”

He gets this big grin on his face. “Well, to no one’s surprise, I screw up with thinking about this old band member and how he took a few songs. I should have just let him have them, because not only can this girl  _ sing  _ you should see what she writes.”

“I’m starting to think you got it bad for this girl.”

“You don’t even know the half of it”

“I think I can get a good idea.”

“Anyway, one bad choice leads to another, and I manage to get us into the Orpheum because I was not dying without getting this girl a paid gig.” He laughs to himself and leans in to peck her nose. “And after it's all said and done, she gives me this hug and it's like my heart starts beating for the first time. The rest is history after that, give or take a few months for me to get my act together.”

She keeps her eyes closed, just a few more seconds after his little kiss, before returning the favor. “You know, I think I like that one, but it's way too long, I’m thinking of one of the fun, little stories, you know the ones where you don’t have to write out the part where you get electrocuted.”

He scoffs and opens the piano again. “I was in a band with  _ Reggie,  _ you don’t know how often I have to do that.”

She just rolls her eyes, he clearly knew what she was talking about. 

He adjusts the beanie and shows his lock screen. It was the profile picture for their Instagram, all four of them playing at Drake's bar and club, he presses down his thumb and it comes to life, and instead of jumping midair Julie, Reggie, and he sticks the landing as Alex slams his arms down. "If I had to make another story, for that one, I'd say as soon as we finished that set, Alex had girls lining up to get his phone number and snap chat, so he gave them the number to his job's landline to let them down easy." 

"He did not!"

"He did, he just forgot to say they disconnected the line in 2011. We learned the hard way not to give out our real numbers."

"See, stuff like that!" She interjects

"Hey, don't worry about it. We have plenty of stories. And when we are old, because we are getting older, Reggie said he saw a grey hair."

"He works with 70-year-olds"

"No, I saw it I plucked it off of him! Anyway, when we are going to get old, we are going to be intolerable the way we tell stories. Inside jokes from touring, lyrics that we never turned into songs, whatever! We are going to have so many stories to tell, it's going to make your head spin." He sits right back beside her. "Because we aren't going anywhere Jules when you played that CD, and we had that hug, you signed up for a lifetime of us." 

"It's just hard, if Caleb's magic works, all of this will be for nothing, I'm not going to remember you."

"You see, that's where I've got my big master plan. You see, all three of us are going to give you so many fun memories, it will be impossible to wipe it all out." He sets the notebook up on the stand with her sheet music. "But that's not going to matter one bit, because we are sending that guy right across that line into the afterlife, and maybe they Harrison guy too to beat his ass afterwards, on our behalf." He lifts her head by putting his thumb under her chin and presses a kiss to her forehead. "Because I have too many memories to make with you to just go falling out of existence in the next two weeks." 

She closes her eyes at the kiss and leans her head into his chest, she knew that album photo was still the same as she left it, but sometimes if she stared too long she swore they messed up the hair on her boys. But she knew it was all in her head. "Thanks, I have plenty of memories I've gotta make with you too, starting right here." She pressed the notebook until she heard it crack and sit flat on the stand. "Now where do you want to start on this, because I am going to need a minute to start figuring out your handwriting." Luke just laughs and looks around to remember where he wanted it to start, he finds one line that was sort of at the top. 

_ "Eyes out the window, head's in the clouds"  _ He starts as Julie starts slowly on the piano. "No let's speed it up, it's gotta rock." He rushes and grabs his guitar and slips into it before starting to strum.  _ "Running through feelings I didn't know I had, and now the world is clearing up." _

With the lyrics all over the page, Julie tosses in a few more notes before joining in.  _ "Opening up for tomorrow, but I can see all I need today. If things could only stay this way." _

_ "Going off this feeling, heart's in my hands, leading me to the sky" _

"Pulling, I think pulling paints a better picture." She adds.  _ "Heart's in my hands, pulling me to the sky. Let those words pass us by," _

He takes her hand and guides her away from the piano. He sees her white microphone and grabs it, she tries to chase him after it but he sheds the guitar and starts running off around the studio.  _ "They're out there saying 'too young, nothing to lose' but all I can hear is our heads in the clouds” _

_ “Who knew being free would feel this loud” _

“Okay, just like that but higher.” He holds the mic between them. “Being _ me to show them how.” _

_ “Being me to show them how.”  _ She echoes and presses their heads together. He leans in and gives her a peck on the cheek. “Perfect."

"Yeah, I guess it is, well almost." She sets the notebook down on the other side of the piano.  _ "We're right where we need to be, and that's chasing down those bigger dreams."  _ It's a little too close to  _ Great  _ isn't it?"

"Nah, when this one is done, it's going to be the big sister to  _ Great. Finally Free _ too, it's all connected. People are going to be listening to our music for hours making these connections." 

"So you just want to keep music analysis Twitter up all night?"

"I think so? It sounds like something fun," He shrugs. 

“Okay, so I was thinking we let off with that  _ "being me to show them"  _ line, but end it with ‘now’ instead of ‘how’ on that last verse." he runs over to his notebook and scribbles it down. 

“Yeah, that works.” She goes up behind him just to wrap her arms around his torso, humming and presses her face into his flannel. He was going to turn right back around and keep practicing, but he just rests his hand over hers and they keep humming together. 

"I still make you a better writer, right?"

"Everyday Jules," 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Luke telling Sunset Curve war stories can actually clear your skin, fun fact.


End file.
